Tell me that you need me
by I Cloud Strife
Summary: The story is set a year after the events of Advent Children. One day Cloud suddenly finds a mysterious portal, opening him the way for a new adventure on Grand Pulse with a new partner. Someone he is getting attached to over the course of the story... Disclaimer: The coverimage belongs to vincy-kun from deviantart.
1. Let's get it started!

_Alright, first of all… this isn't my first Fic. I have been writing on a CloTi Fic a year ago or something but had to stop on it as my computer crashed and I lost everything that I've been writing, ideas and chapter._

_I always try to stay with the character from the game and the game world, more or less at least. I don't want to change their characteristics that much as I want to keep it "realistic". Maybe you will notice that though._  
><em>Moreover, I am like the biggest Cloud Fan on earth and played a lot of Final Fantasy's… Lightning is my favorite female character, therefore there was no hard decision which 2 characters I want to write about. I came up with the idea for this story as I got bored lately.<em>

_Hoping that my computer wont crash again completely I will be starting on this now… I have a rough idea of where this story should be leading to._

_Oh, this story is **NOT** supposed to be a one shot, meaning, there will be more chapters to come around **IF** you like the story, comment and rate on it. If not, I won't be wasting my time with it. :-P_

_Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Final Fantasy Universe; it all belongs to Squaresoft and SquareEnix._

~.~.~

Chapter 1: Let's get it started!

~Prologue

Almost a year has passed since the last since the last clash of the two archrivals in which Cloud turned out to be the stronger one, the rescuer of the world. After defeating Sephiroth another time, Cloud was finally ready to start a new, start something he never had and never wanted till this point, a life. He stayed at the 7th heaven for the most nights, spending time with the Denzel and Tifa. He still had his contact to all of his friends of the past. Cloud has always been a self-deprecating person and never wanted anything from the manhood for saving them, he still lived a life like every else did, so was he still delivering packages for the Cloud Strife delivery service to get some money.

But still, there was something that made him special, he was still infused with mako and it was something that would never change. He was ageing slightly slower than other people around, he never forgot how to fight, he seemed to be stronger than other people and he still kept his brand label, the blue glowing eyes. You can tell them apart from normal eyes as the pupils seem to be somewhat fluent. During nighttime and while being really emotional those eyes seem to be glowing even stronger; making him recognizable for every person on gaia as a SOLDIER. Something he claimed to be but he never was. Zack was his mentor, his friend, his brother… someone he won't ever forget or won't be able to be replaced.

He was starting his day just like he did the others in the past year… nothing odd about it, but that should be changing pretty soon…

~End Prologue

The time I hit my alarm clock it was 7am on a Monday; still being sleepy I rubbed my eyes and stretched on the bed with a yawn. From the bed I had a perfectly clear look through the window, knowing this would be a great day…, birds were already singing and it didn't seem to be too cold, but time will tell. I slowly got up into a sitting position and started to scratch the back of my head while thinking about the deliveries I had to do today. Nothing special about it… a normal route through a desert looking area of gaia.

"Well… Let's get this new week started" I said to myself while getting up and walking to the bathroom to clean myself and change clothes. After washing my face, brushing my teeth and getting my hairs right I started to put on my clothes, some black socks, black shoes, black trousers and some kind of turtleneck in dark blue. Staring into the mirror and clapping my cheeks with the palms of my hands twice wakened me completely. I left the bathroom and made my way downstairs to the bar where I should be eating my breakfast soon, the smell of the breakfast was surrounding the bar already.

"Seems like Tifa is already awake… making the breakfast once again" I thought while moving towards a table in the bar, sitting down and looking out of the window.

"Tifa?" I asked quietly as I didn't know if the boy was awake already. I heard some noises and noticed it must be her, a few seconds later she was standing at the door from the kitchen smiling.

"Oh hey Cloud, you are awake… I am preparing breakfast for you." she announced while I gave her a nod.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Some fried eggs, bacon and bread, do you like it? I thought I would try out something different this time as you must be sick of seeing your cereals every morning" she announced somewhat shyly. I stared at her before starting to chuckle a little.

"Yeah… go ahead… that is absolutely fine. No worries, I will eat it" has been my answer with a small smile. "Is Denzel…"

She interrupted me here, "Yeah, he is still sleeping… wait, let me get your plate". A few seconds later she came back with the breakfast and put it onto the table sitting across of me and I guess watching me how I was eating the, let me say new, breakfast slowly.

"Mmh… really good Tifa, thank you" I said smiling.

"No need to thank me, you have to drive around a lot and therefore you need to be a strong boy" she said and started laughing. "Where you have to go today? Leaving soon? Nothing special right so it shouldn't take too long?"

I smiled, "Tifa… you seem to have many questions as always" I said while looking at her and she started to smile, "No…, nothing special, I should be home pretty soon again. Just one package to Wutai and that's it. And yeah…, I will be leaving right after finishing this so that I can be home earlier" I continued and started smiling a bit back at her.

"Good" she said and pinched my right cheek playfully afterwards while giving me a wink, "I thought it may take longer… but as you will be home soon again Denzel won't miss you and see you later, otherwise he wanted me to wake him up"

"I see… no need to wake him" I was about to finish up my food. "You want me to put the plate away?" I asked while pointing onto the plate and looking at her.

"No, I will take it" she said happily while standing up and grabbing the plate. She disappeared into the kitchen while I was standing up and grabbing my bustersword which was leaning onto the wall next to the door.

"Say…" I asked curious "...you have any special things to do today?" she rushed back into the bar after that question where I was standing.

"No Cloud, not really, why are you asking?"

"Well, you are asking me daily what I am going to do… why I shouldn't be asking you for at least once?" I shrugged while she was smiling.

"What you need your sword for?" she asked after a few seconds looking somewhat strange at me.

"Well, you never know, right? Thank you for the breakfast, it was really good." I put the sword onto my back and grabbed the doorknob. "Tell Denzel I will be home soon, and you take care of your businesses here. See you later today, Tifa."

"You too take care… Cloud, be home soon again, please" she answered while smiling as I walked out of the door.

I went to the garage searching for my bike, fenrir… the package which I should be delivering was in front of the garage, the people which want me to deliver always put it in front of it and let me know the address where I have bring it to. "Wutai" I said to myself shrugging a little, "I think I will be taking the route over the desert rock area… shouldn't take too long, really". I affixed the package on the seat of fenrir, right behind me, jumped onto the bike and started driving to the village I needed to go to.

After a few hours of driving through the desert something was shining pretty bright in the horizon, something I have never noticed before. I have been too far away to see it just now, but I decided to get closer so that I can have a look at it, it definitely looked strange and got my attention.

Some minutes later I reached an area which I didn't remember ever seeing before. On the first sight there wasn't anything special about it… just some small mountains and rocks lying around in the desert. I jumped off from fenrir and grabbed my sword while moving around "What is wrong with this area? What has been shining from here and why have I never noticed this before?" I asked myself. "Something has to be here…" I have been still walking around this not that big place and was searching for the reason of the brightness which I have noticed earlier "… I just don't seem to find it." I shrugged and was moving back to fenrir as it started again, the brightness was back. "What… is this?" I asked with wide opened eyes that were staring at the small mountain. A small, glowing, bright slit was in there and was blinding me amazingly with something which I have never seen before. I was walking closer to that small mountain again and touched the slit.

"What is going on here? This is so bright! I can barely see something. What is this slit for anyways?" I was still touching it and thought about its use while holding one of my hands in front of my eyes; just simply to save me from this bright light and let me see a bit. I noticed that something has to fit in there; it wasn't such a big slit… I just didn't know what. First I tried to put my hand and arm in there without any success. I was shrugging again. "What… do you want from me?" A few seconds later I noticed that a sword might fit in there, so I grabbed the bustersword and slowly put it in and it really did work. I decided to push it in deeper until the earth was somewhat shaking. I wasn't able to think or say anything; I have been stunned from what was going on. The mountain seemed to be splitting so that a hallway appeared and a small, round door case out of rocks was seeable at the end of this hallway while my bustersword disappeared with the splitting rock. Moving towards this door I have been thinking to myself… "What is this? This something seems to be liquid, where is this leading me to?" Once standing in front of it I've swallowed twice and stared at it without knowing what to say or to do.

**~.~.~**

**Alright, I hope you enjoyed the beginning. If you want me to continue please give me some review as I don't want to be wasting my time with something no one is reading :D**

**Thanks!**


	2. Valhalla

Hey.. fast update. This chapter is a bit shorter than the last one but I just only wanted everything before we change the settings!

**Answers to my reviewers:**

**Glitchly:** You got a PM :D

**i:** Thank you, yeah.. I am still thinking about the whole story. Like I said, a rough idea is there, I just need to find some other good stuff^^.

**Ah hah:** I will, it's saved on more places this time... not again this mess haha. And thanks!

~.~.~

C. 2: Valhalla

Still staring at the fluent something I have been undecided what I should be doing. Go back and tell Tifa about it or just find out what this is? And why is this looking so fluent, it seems to be… unreal. The strange thing about this was, that this fluent stuff inside the round door case out of rocks seems to be flying in the air as you could enter this something either from the front or from behind, if it could be entered at all. I've been scratching my head and looked outside the hallway.

"I really don't know what I should be doing here; maybe I would know it if I would know what this thing is at least. It even stopped shining… something about this is really strange." I thought to myself and decided to a walk outside the hallway again noticing it would shine brighter with every step I walk away from it. "What…? Is it giving me a signal? Does it want actually me?" I still thought to myself after facing to this rock door case again. I tested it and started to walk closer to it until I was standing directly in front of it again and in return, with every step I made, the shining would get less. I suddenly lifted my right arm and looked at my hand before doing any further actions. "I think… I should have a look what happens if I put my hand in there… it can't be that bad, right?" I said to myself giving me some courage to try it. Normally I never thought about what I am doing but this time… everything seemed to be too strange. After the decision has been made I stick my hand into this fluent entrance to somewhere and had a look on the backside of it just only to notice that my hand wasn't there sticking out but in fact disappearing somewhere in this fluidity. I took my head back and widened my eyes with confusion the time I noticed that it wouldn't let me take my hand out. "Alright… what is going on now and why…" before I was even able to finish my thought I felt that my body started vibrating, I had the chance to swallow once more before I got drawn into the door with a sudden and strong extraction.

A few seconds later I found myself standing at a whole different place, EVERYTHING was white, no objects, no sky, no ground, just white, everywhere.

"Where am I?" I asked myself.

"Wrong question" a female voice answered, not knowing from where or who it was, I never heard that voice before.

"Who are you?" I asked looking around not seeing anyone.

"Wrong question" yet again this answer, my face looked puzzled.

"What… do you mean with wrong question?"

"Wrong question", I just shrugged and continued asking, something had to be the 'right' question.

"How did I get here? What happened?"  
>"Wrong question" the female voice repeated again and let me answer back "Well, I got that now, you can start saying something different" but yet no reaction from the female voice.<p>

"Why me? Why did the fluidity wanted to have me?" I asked getting confused with all this noticing a woman was appearing in front of me out of nowhere… she seemed to be consisting out of… light. Moreover, she had a small smile on her face. She didn't answer to be question though, so I had to ask her something different again…

"What is the purpose of all this? What is the purpose of me being here?" I asked her hoping for a real answer this time.

"Hello Cloud, you found the question I longed for… now we can start talking" her smile grew as my eyes widened.

"Where do you know my name from?" I asked while being under shock.

"Here and there, there is a lot more I know about you, Cloud." she said very kindly.

"Good for you, would you now please answer my questions so I could also get to know more about you?" I asked her being slightly annoyed from all this. She giggled at my facial expression.

"Of course, Cloud. You are in Valhalla, the nowhere and everywhere, the past and the future, the life and the death. I am Cosmos, the goddess of harmony and I have been waiting for you Cloud, I am glad you finally made it here." I didn't ask back anything yet as I was shocked of what she is telling me. "You got here through the portal which you found in Gaia, you did go through it and well, now you are here."

Finally I got rid off the shock and was able to think clear again…  
>"Valhalla? You are a goddess? Yeah… right." I said disbelieving her while shrugging.<p>

"It doesn't matter what you think of me or this place, what I think about you is the only thing that matters here right now." she said as her smile vanished.

"And what do you think of me?" I asked curious with no emotions and no expression in my face either.

"You are strong, Cloud. And you are needed. You will find out the purpose really soon." Her face was now totally serious.

"I am needed where?" I don't know why, but somehow I started to take this a bit more serious… she can't be joking, right? She consists out of light, this can't be fake. Moreover I got here in a way which for sure wasn't natural. Maybe she was really a goddess… but if not, I wouldn't care either.

"Cocoon" was her simple answer, short and precisely.

"What is Cocoon?" I asked not knowing what she was talking about.

"A planet, just like Gaia. What did you think?" she started giggling again and held her hand in front of her mouth while doing so.

"Well… I didn't know that's why I've been asking" I answered while rolling my eyes. "And how should I be getting there? Fly there with some wings?" I asked her in a funny way as I tried to hide my annoyance as we didn't get any further no matter how much we've been talking. Moreover I wanted to leave this place, back to Gaia. I had deliveries to do.

"Cloud?" she said, her smile disappeared yet again.

"Yes?" wondering what was wrong now.

"You should be careful what you are wishing for" and this time she was shrugging.

"What do you mean?" I asked as she simply pointed at me and made me check myself.

"Holy ****! I got some angel wings?" I stared with wide opened eyes at my back as she flipped her fingers while giggling and they disappeared again. I looked back at her, now totally serious as I finally believed her, she wasn't lying. This, for sure, wasn't normal.

"So… how should I be getting there, honestly?" I asked her.

"The same way you came here, Cloud. You will travel through space and time."

"A portal?"

"Yes and no." I just looked at her; she knew what she was doing …hopefully.

"Why did you choose me and not someone else?"

"You got experiences Cloud."

"…with what?" I asked her curious again.

"I am sorry; it's not my business to tell you this." she answered while facing away.

"I see… Cosmos, can you tell me what the problem is over there, on cocoon?" I wanted to face her directly but she kept looking away.

"I am sorry." I sighed to her reply.

"You know… I lost my weapon… I can't be helping if I should be fighting there." I announced.

"You will find a solution, you are a smart boy Cloud." she faced me again and was looking up at me. "You will do well, I know it. Please help them, they need it. Something is going on there…" she said while her facial expression turned sad. "Oh…, Cloud? You won't remember much of this talk the time you reach cocoon. The memory should be coming back sooner or later though. So let me give you this and you will know what you have to do." she handed me some kind of letter. "Don't open it just now, put it into your pocket and leave it there until you find it. There is not much written on it anyways and wouldn't help you now either with understanding of what is going on." she said smiling again.

"Understand." I let her know and put the letter into my trouser pocket and nodded at her. "I will try to help, I promise. I need to go back to Gaia, soon." She didn't give me any reply to this concern.

"Alright, I think I am ready Cosmos" I smirked at her. "Open the portal!" were my final words before she came closer and rested her right hand on my forehead which made me look at her and lose my facial expression but leave confusion.

"Good luck Cloud, you are their only hope, and they won't do it on their own." she said to me, you could actually see the hope in her eyes, she really meant it, I have to help…I have to. "Now sleep, my chosen one" were the last words from her before everything blacked out in front of me.

~.~.~

**Please review for more :3**

**Cheers!**


	3. Cocoon

**Answers to my reviewers:**

**Glitchly:** Thank you, not doing it on purpose xD

**sharada:** I know.. Ive always been a CloTi Fan so until now I am not sure how to handle it, but i just simply love Light more than Tifa :D

**i:** I am not sure if you can compare them at all.. Etro got some goddess powers and Comsos.. well, she is just there lol. Etro decides over life and death. Maybe they have some things in common... but all in all they are different I think. And nope, not planning to go through FF13 with Cloud as that would be kind of boring, everyone knows what happened in FF13 therefore I will go for my own story *smiles*.

**bluelightning:** haha :D And i need you xD

~.~.~

C. 3: Cocoon

I noticed myself getting slowly control of my mind again… I must have been sleeping or something. I wonder what made me sleep that tight but it felt good. It felt good sleeping long like this… I wasn't used to it as I always needed to wake up early in the morning for the deliveries. Thinking of the deliveries my eyes jumped open and I got up with my upper body in case I missed them, did I have to work? Did I oversleep?  
>"Do I have to...?" Before I could even finish the thought I was lying back down again with confused eyes looking around.<br>"Where am I? I haven't seen this place before! Uhh…" My eyes bounced around checking the area while my right hand rested on my head which kind of hurt, I've been in a house I didn't see before. I wanted to stand up and search for someone around here but my inner self told me to just stay in my position and wait for the right time, and that time should be the right one if someone comes around to look after me. Lying there I rested now both hands on my forehead feeling pain and confusion. "Something definitely isn't right here…and why is my head hurting that bad?" I said quietly to myself. Not thinking about what I should be doing I felt asleep again and rested my thoughts.

After some time, I didn't know how long I have been sleeping though, I woke up again, rubbing my eyes first and slowly opening them afterwards. I know what I saw earlier wasn't a dream, I really were at a place where I have never been before. As soon as my eyes were opened slightly I noticed that someone was sitting next to me and kept staring at me.

"He is awake!" an for me unknown female voice said. I kept lying in position staring at her and wondering whom she was calling for. She has some kind of strawberry pink hairs which were tied to a ponytail draping over her left shoulder. Her eyes are blue she looks like being around 20 years old. Wearing a red plaid pleated skirt lined with black lace and a white sleeveless dress shirt. That's all I was able to see at that moment. Suddenly a door behind me opened, a tall man came into the room I have been lying in.

"He is awake, Snow" she said smiling this time. He has blond hairs and wears some kind of coat. He looks pretty beefy.

"Finally, took him long enough, I thought he wouldn't make it" he said looking at her. "I wouldn't make it? What happened to me?" raced through my mind. My eyes have been jumping back and forth between them, checking on them and trying to get to know who is actually standing right in front of me. They couldn't be too bad as they took me with them.

"I know Snow, I thought the same" she replied to him before facing me as I returned the look at her. "Are you alright?" she asked firmly.

In fact, I kept staring at her for a few more moments before finally giving her an answer looking to the side "I think so…". I got my body up and pushed my legs down from the bed, I was not sitting on the edge still looking at both persons which were standing here staring at me. I didn't know what to do so I awkwardly started to scratch the back of my head.

"What's your name?" she asked tilting her head to the side smiling widely as her face went red a bit.

"Cloud" I simply announced.

"I am glad you are feeling better, Cloud" her smile didn't seem to disappear.

"We thought you maybe wouldn't make it man…" the dude said jumping into the talk, "you wanted to suicide?" he asked curious as my eyes widened in confusion.

"Snow, get him some hot tea please" she stated as he just simply nodded and disappeared from the room which wasn't decorated girly at all, must have been his room.

"Am I allowed to return the question?" I asked her nervous.

"Of course" she reached her hand out "My name is Serah, it's nice to meet you".

"The pleasure is on my side I think… " I announced while shaking her hand.

"…uhm… where am I anyways?" I asked her the time we pulled back our hands.  
>"Bodhum, New Bodhum to be specific. In the house I am living in."<p>

"I never heard of that place. Is it a new city?" I asked her confused.

"Not really…" she answered also being confused now. "You seem to have a lack of memory, don't you? Are you sure you are alright?"

"I really don't know, Serah." I answered sighing. "I want to call to Edge, can I borrow your phone, please?"

"Edge?" she asked even more confused now.

"Midgar Edge?" I answered. You don't know the capital?

"What?" she was giving me a strange look now.

"Well… maybe we should forget about this for now, seems like my head really hit something" I answered confused. "I must be dreaming... what is going on" I thought to myself.

A few seconds later that dude, I guess Snow was his name, came back in with a tea for me.

"There you go… I hope you like black tea" he said giving me the cup.  
>"Yeah… that is completely alright." I took the cup and warmed my hands on it. I still didn't know what was going on. I noticed that they kept staring at me as I was facing away; Serah was sitting right in front of me while Snow was leaning against the door.<p>

"Say… did you find any belongings from me?" I asked them looking slightly up to them.

"Belongings?" he answered rapidly. "You should be happy that you are alive, we didn't find anything…"

"It seems like I lost everything… my memory of what is going on here and everything else, even my sword,…"  
>"Sword?" she asked as if it is something special.<p>

"Not that important for now… but please tell me, why you two keep saying that I could have been dead by now?" I wondered while sipping my tea. Damn, that was hot.

"Simply because you have been floating on the sea for no one knows how long with your face facing the ocean" he answered shrugging slighting with a small smirk. "Lucky I am alive, otherwise he wouldn't be smirking" I thought, no, I hoped. I didn't feel like saying anything to that, I was done, this wasn't my day.

"See… we had to get you out of there and afterwards we decided to bring you to our house. We didn't know if you were going to make it. You swallowed a lot of water, you know? We-" Serah interrupted him here "had to give you a kiss of life to get rid of that water, Cloud."

"Who?" I asked them a few moments later. Both just smiled while Snow was raising his hand. "Great…" I thought. "Well, thank you, Snow" I said looking up at him smiling a little.

"No probs man" he answered and left the room.

"Serah?" I asked facing her.

"Mmh?"

"How long have I been sleeping?" I wondered

"6 days straight" she said nodding. It seems like something really did mess me up as I never slept that long before. By the time we were talking I finished my tea and decided to lie down again, I felt tired and all those confusions in my head didn't make me feel just any better.

"Oh Cloud, we found this in your pocket the time we brought you home and wanted to dry your clothes." The moment she said that I noticed I was wearing boxers only and that even in front of a girl! My cheeks heated up slightly, knowing they went red a bit. Like I said, it wasn't my day. That must have been the reason why she went red earlier. She handed the letter to me while she was standing up while smiling. "You should have a look at it… and take some more rest Cloud, I think you need it after all what happened to you, you seem to be very confused with everything at the moment." she added being extremely friendly. I decided to crawl under the cover while nodding to her signaling that I accepted her offer. I opened the letter while she was still standing next to me and read it with even more confusion, though, there were only a few words written on it.

"Help them protecting Cocoon Cloud, the whole planet has faith in you, you are my chosen hero to support the ones who fight but won't be able to win on their own.

Cosmos"

I just simply didn't get anything of what was written in there so I decided to put it under my pillow and read it again… maybe tomorrow. Even though I just slept for so long I felt sleepy already again as I have been yawning like 3 or 4 times in a row.

"I notice you want to rest, I should go and let you do so, it is late anyways." she said smiling yet again. She loved to smile I think… "You can stay longer Cloud. You can stay here with us 3 until you feel better."

"3?" I thought. "Why 3?"

"She will stay in the living room and sleep on the coach, somehow she loves to sleep on that thing more than on her bed anyways… don't ask me why because I don't know" she said giggling and walking towards the door just about to close it afterwards behind her.

"Who is she?" I was able to ask before the door was closed. She didn't open it again to face me while giving her answer, she just answered from outside and let me rest and sleep afterwards.

"My sister."

~.~.~

**Thanks for reading, hope you liked it :)**


	4. Help that chocobo!

**Foreword:**

Hey readers *smile*,

I now, actually the story wouldn't fit right behind FFXIII anymore as Light was supposed to "disappear" right after the storyline finished (thanks to FFXIII-2) and that's why I am thinking about mixing it all up a bit, giving it a little twist! As FFXIII gave us an open end and we didn't know what to expect from pt.2 and don't know what to expect of FFXIII-3 (who knows if it will come out…) I am going to take some characters of the new game, though don't worry, I won't be spoiling anybody with just anything from the new game. I might bring Caius into this story but change his goals, reasons, etc. so it actually fits into my story and you won't be getting any spoilers. I don't know just yet how far I will be going with him and the characters and that's why I just wanted to let you all know about this. Thought about Sephiroth too but he doesn't fit into the setting of Cocoon/Grand Pulse and moreover Cloud wouldn't see anything "new" if I put him into this story, there wouldn't be a twist and also a loss of excitement. At this point of time I am not thinking about putting many of those time travel portals into this story as I found that idea from SquareEnix somewhat lame (besides a few of course which would be needed in some cases, the time I've been writing this story I didn't even know that the place of Etro, in my story Cosmos, is named Valhalla… pretty lucky I named it the same haha). So please, don't think this is a storyline between FFXIII and FFXIII-2, it is obviously not xD – we will see what gonna happen :D. Thanks :).

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><p><strong>Answers to my reviewers:<strong>

**Glitchly:** There ya go :D

**nie261:** Well, I know my chapters are pretty short... normally around 1700-2200 words on word, though... I read already fics here which have less. Anyways, I don't know why but I kind of like the short chapters more than the big ones as I can say with those that I am done with this "fragment" of the story and head over to the next one which will most likely deal with other things or a different topic or just simply go further in the story. I am not like 'I want this chapter to not be over 2000 words!', it just happens that way and I really don't like if 2 different topics get into 1 chapter, I like it sorted. Anyways, this chapter got 3200 words of text lol, sometimes miracles come true.

**sharada:** I know right? I love Light :D

**i:** Yeah.. thinking of something myself but I still don't know where it will lead me to as you can see in the 'Foreword'. And yup, Snow gave Cloud the kiss of life :D. According to the chapter problematic see 'nie261' :).

**Zeroblade63:** Me neither xD

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><p>C.4: What happened 6 days ago? Help the chocobo!<p>

~.Serah POV

I made my way downstairs after leaving the room Cloud was sleeping in, the room of my sister, to head to bed soon too. Before I went to my bedroom I went to the living room to check on Lightning, she was just sitting in the couch looking out of the window next to her, she might been thinking about something or was just simply staring at Cocoon which was held up in the sky. I just smiled at her from the other side of the room, thinking she didn't notice me, but…

"Serah." she then suddenly said, making me jump up a little as I didn't expect her to know I was there.

"What is it, Light?"

"Do you think they are alright?" first I didn't know whom she was talking about, but then… I understood that she actually was thinking about them.

"I think so… after all, it's not the first time they are a crystal stasis like this, right? They even said themselves that it is their purpose of life…" I told her not sure what to tell. She gave me a slight nod still looking out of the window before looking at me a few seconds afterwards.  
>"Say…" she tilted her head.<p>

"Hm?"  
>"How exactly did you both find that endless sleeping chocobo?" I knew what and whom she was talking about… funny that she actually calls him like I did on first sight. Lightning was someone who didn't need anybody around her… she didn't care much for people she doesn't know personally… she was totally different from me. I don't think she and him will be 'good friends' as she won't be interested, I think… she only wants to get rid of him as soon as possible, she doesn't care. At least that's what I think. I sat next to her and started to tell her what happened exactly 6 days earlier…<p>

**/ 6 days earlier; start of flashback - The explanation to Lightning /**

It has been an ordinary day, a day like every other. I woke up early in the morning, preparing for work and checking on Light and Snow. After everything calmed down on Grand Pulse I decided to become a teacher so that I could actually do something for the community, be there for them, help others… people say I am a person which really enjoys to help others, respectful and always there with open arms for anyone. That's the least thing I could do… give others help if they needed it as I got some help 2 years ago too. A time I don't want to look back to. Being trapped in eternal sleep and counting on others to break the crystal stasis so that you can enjoy life, love and living again. This time was minting me and everything I got I want to give back to others now. Though… I could have been in a worse situation now like others are in…

I won't ever forget what they did for us and I still hope that we can see them soon again; somehow, somewhere… they gave their lives for ours.

On my way back home in the afternoon of this day from the basic primary school in which I was teaching the kids in several subjects I always spent several minutes staring at Cocoon which was held in the sky by our friends. I hoped they were doing well. Life in New Bodhum, Gran Pulse is different from living there back then. I can't explain why…, it's just like we aren't trapped in a cage anymore. People were saying that the crystal might break and Cocoon could crash into Gran Pulse and Cocoon needs to be protected so that won't happen… but that were legends which occurred since the last year. Nobody really knew if that would really happen, we just hoped it wouldn't so that we could continue living in piece.

The time I reached my home and closed the door behind me I heard nothing but silence. That was normal in this house, as long as Lightning and Snow didn't have any arguments about childish stuff.

"Hm... it's so quiet again in here" I whispered to myself, "is anybody in here? Light? Snow?" I asked around but I didn't get any response. So I started to make my way up to the living room to check if someone was there. On the couch, however, I saw Lightning sleeping silently, she must have had a hard day as she started to work in some kind of military department here on Gran Pulse…, she told me so often what she is doing in there but I seem to forget about it all the time making me afraid to ask her once more. I know I would forget it in the end anyways again; therefore I just leave it like it is and let her do what she enjoys. I was standing right next to the couch now staring at her and making me wonder why she wouldn't just go to her bedroom and sleep on the bed… she always told me she enjoy the sleep on the couch more though that's kind of hard to believe as it seems to be hard like a rock if you ask me. I guess she just wants to be closer to the front door so that she could go outside quickly if she needed or wanted to.

I started to smile while staring at her, she looked so innocent cute while sleeping… but she could be dragon the time she was awake, a real power woman some people might say. Not many people have the privilege to watch her sleeping, if they would knew that she was that… innocent, the people would maybe think different of her. No matter what others say, I love her anyways, she was always on my side and protected me from the day on our parents couldn't do that anymore. I decided to get closer to her and give her a warm hug not knowing that would wake her up already.

"S-Serah?" she was mumbling sleepy and dizzy while rubbing her eyes with one hand.

"Mmmh… yea, it's me sister" I responded her while she hugged me back with the other hand. "You didn't sleep much, am I right?" I asked concerned.

"You know me, Serah" she announced. The sleepiness in her voice was gone already, if she would have needed to fight now she was already ready for it.

"And you don't know how much I cherish that I know you that good and have you as my sister" I said giggling while breaking the hug and looking at her, she just simply smiled weakly… she wasn't someone who loved to smile much, guess that's a secondary effect your personality will attain if you head to the military… but I didn't mind, I knew who she was and is. "You want to continue your rest, sis?"

"Mmmh… yeah Serah, I am still sleepy… don't know why I had to be in the graveyard shift, it's annoying and messing up my daily rhythm as you can tell now" she said rolling her eyes slightly and rolling around on the couch until she found an comfortable position to sleep in again.

"I understand that…" I looked down at her kind of pitying her. "One last question before I stop annoying you" I said smiling and saw that she also started to smile, I knew I wouldn't ever annoy her. "Do you have any idea where Snow is? I don't think he is at home as he didn't answer me the time I was asking for both of you earlier… well, maybe he is also sleeping just like you though…" I said thoughtful looking.

"Hmm… he told me something but I forgot what it was" she said shrugging "He speaks too much, sometimes its nonsense… sometimes it's not… how should I know at what time I have to pay attention to his talk? I gave up on that and just listen to him the time I feel like listening to his talking" she said laughing a bit.

"Hey…!" I replied back very soon kind of sad. I knew she was right… she just enjoyed making fun of him here and there…

Lightning sighed "You know I am right Serah… but I was kidding, he told me that you should search for him next to the beach, he wanted to talk to you a bit I guess… maybe about the wedding? You will find out. Have fun and you better be home safe otherwise I need to kick someone's ass for not taking care of you." she said yet smiling again.

I nodded in acceptance "Thank you Light, I will tell you what it was about later!" I told her before she closed her eyes to rest some more hours again. I left the house and walked to the beach which was really close to our house here in New Bodhum. I didn't need to walk for too long to see Snow already. He was tall so that was kind of helpful to find him.

"Snow!" I said loudly while running towards him so he could hear me and turn around to welcome me in his arms for a tight hug.

"Heya… how have you been? Enjoyed your day?" he asked before pressing his lips on my forehead.

I couldn't help but smile. "All good…, and you? Why you wanted me to come here?"

"Same for me Serah. Oh… I just only wanted to talk, you want to come with me and have a walk on the beach? The sun is about of go down soon… I just love to share that moment with you" he said smiling back at me.

I pressed my lips on his for a moment and gave him a nod afterwards. Of course I wanted to have a walk on the beach… I love to share such moments with him too.

"Say… did you find Lightning?" he asked while we were walking down the beach, hand in hand looking at me.

"Yeah… she was sleeping; work makes her really tired lately… I hope she is alright" I replied kind of worry looking.

"She is a tough woman Serah, she is fine. I bet… she didn't remember what I told her, right?"

"Hmm… yeah, kind of." We were both standing and looking at each other for a few seconds just to start laughing afterwards.

"That's how she is, our Lightning" we both said at the same time making us laugh even more.

"Anyways…" snow started while we continued to walk making our way to the pedestrian bridge at the sea.

"Hm?" I looked curious at him.

"The marriage is coming closer and closer Serah…"

"Yeah…" I looked down to the sand shyly.

"I just only wanted to let you know once again that I will do everything to make you happy" he spoke those words with the voice of a hero.

"Snow…"

"And even more important, I will protect you from everything so that your sister doesn't feel the need to slap my face" he said laughing a bit while we were making our way onto the bridge.

He made me laugh too. "That would be better for you I guess, you know how she can be If she gets mad, so don't provoke her" I said giving him a joking wink while we stopped moving as we were at the end of the bridge and the sky was colored orange from the sunset already.

"I know" he said laughing for some seconds again. "I will always be there for you my angel." he then announced totally serious while brushing my cheek with his right hand softly and moving his head towards mine slowly while closing his eyes.

"Thank you Snow…" I said softly while moving towards him to give him a kiss as I noticed something in the water and jumped up forgetting about the moment we just shared together. "Snow!" It made him jump up.

"W-what?" he stared at me with extremely wide open eyes; I think I haven't seen him looking like this before. I pointed out to the water onto something which seemed to be floating there motionless. "Do you see that?" I asked him nervously.

"Where… where is my kiss?" he looked innocent sad at me.

"Later Snow, please, please look at this!" I was still pointing out there and he turned around slowly. "You see it?"

"Yeah… it seems to be…" he analyzed it but it took too long in my opinion.

"I know, it looks like a chocobo with clothes! Just look at those spikes sticking out of the water!" I couldn't help it but that was the first thing which jumped into my mind, I have been too excited.

He didn't say anything to my assumption. "I think it is a human Serah, we should help him!" he answered excited while jumping into the water.

"Yes, that's exactly what I meant!" I saw him swimming towards the bird, I mean, human and grab him. Snow was moving towards the beach therefore I left the bridge and ran back to the beach waiting for him. A few seconds later he was carrying him in front of me and laid him down onto the sand.

"It seems like he swallowed a hell lot of water Serah…he was facing the water with his mouth and nose, I don't know if he got a chance to survive this."

"Well, we have to give him a kiss of life, we have to try it!" I looked at him with hope and begging's in my eyes. "Pleas Snow"

He just looked awkwardly back at me "Well…" he started slowly "at least I get my kiss now… or even kisses…" I just rolled my eyes on him and he closed the nose of that person with one hand while he was starting to breathe life into him and to help his heart work properly again with pumping on it. It looked funny but I didn't want to laugh in this situation. My man was kissing a different man… After 4 minutes of nonstop kissing and pumping on the heart the blonde dude spit out the rest of water which he has swallowed. Snow looked at me helpless.

"There is nothing I can do from now on Serah… the water is out, the rest is up to him" he told me while.

"Hm... how about we help him until he wakes up again and gains his energy back? We can take him home, you wouldn't mind, would you?" I asked cutely.

"No… of course I wouldn't, but there is someone at home who maybe will mind Serah…"

A few minutes later we were reaching our home again, Snow was carrying the dude in his arms as I opened the door facing Lightning who stand right in front of me wanting to open the door for us, us 2. I guess she didn't expect us to carry someone with us…

"Who is that?" she asked before I was even able to open my mouth.

"We don't know Light…" I told her looking down, Snow just shrugged on her question.

"Leave him out then Serah, you never know what he wants or what he does." she said serious looking.

"Light… please, we found him floating on the sea, he swallowed a lot of water, we don't know if he will survive or not… just give him a chance, he might survive…" I looked at her cute hoping she coolness would melt down and she would accept my idea. "Please?"

"…" she didn't say anything, nothing.

"Lightning?" I asked her confused.

"If he does just anything wrong, if he does mess up just anything, if he messes with me, if he annoys me or if he does things he is not suppose to Serah… I will personally take care of his life, you understood?" she asked yet serious again.

"Yes Light" I hugged her while she hugged back and just rolled her eyes on me, I didn't see it but I knew her actions. "Oh… one more thing sis…"

"…." she was silent again…

"Can he… stay in your room? You aren't sleeping there anyways, is it alright?" I broke off the hug a bit to look into her eyes.

She sighed very annoyed. "Same as before… if he touches my things or looks into my lockers etc. I will take care of him, and believe me, he won't like it."

"Thank you Light" I hugged her back tightly with happiness in my eyes. "Snow come on bring him upstairs."

Snow brought him upstairs laying him into Lights bed… there wasn't much we could do from now on besides hoping he would be fine again soon…

**/end flashback/**

I stood up from her couch and gave her a final hug for that day, I've been sleepy and I knew she wouldn't go to sleep just now… she got finally some holidays, she really deserved them. Over the past days it felt like she wanted him to be fine soon again too as she looked up the stairs more often than usual, I don't know why… maybe she just simply needed something from her room, who knows. We will find out, I hope she is alright.

"Good night Light, don't stay awake to long" I said cheerful to her while giving her a kiss on the cheek.  
>"You too good night Serah, sweet dreams" she said smiling as I left the living room and made my way to my bed and Snow which have already been waiting for me…<p>

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><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed :)<strong>


	5. Flying fist

Another update.

Just wanted to say that I might have to change the** Rating from T to M** due to violence in combat or something, not sure yet!

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><p><strong>Answers to my reviewers:<strong>

**Glitchly:** Glad you enjoyed :D

**i:** Let's see what I am going to do, I still don't know myself lol. And yeah.. IMO Light, Fang and Vanille been the main characters in FFXIII as all of them have a big role. Fang appears only ONCE in FFXIII-2, but you are right, Vanille appears even more often... I don't like her xD.

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><p>C.5: Flying fist<p>

_Help… fall… people… Cocoon… death… Gran Pulse… end of time… end of life…_

I suddenly woke up from my dream and got my upper body up to sit on the bed, looking around and checking on myself I noticed that I must been sweating while sleeping. I had a strange dream about Cocoon and some other crazy stuff but couldn't tell what it was supposed to mean. I never experienced something like this before…I scratched myself on the right side of my head while searching for something to free myself from the wet sweat on my face but couldn't find anything.

"Oh man…" I shook my head slightly while looking up at the ceiling "what did you get yourself into this time, Cloud?" I continued talking to myself smiling slightly, not because it was funny to experience something again, just only because it's only me who gets into weird stuff all the time… it's ironic.

"Who was the one who left his hometown to become a SOLDIER? Me…

Who was the one who couldn't make it? Me…

Who was the one which couldn't fight on _his_ side? Me…

Who was the one who forgot who he was and lost his identity? Me…

Who was the one who arrived late and let _her_ die? Me…

And now? Who was the one who landed on a god forsaken planet without actually having a clue of what is going one? Well, you guess Cloud." I said to myself quietly… "Yeah, it is you, who else? Of course it's you… god doesn't enjoy to shit on others but only you." I was still smiling due to the same reason, I couldn't help it. It seems like the devil himself is pushing me from one milestone to the other one, though, none of them are actually good. All this made me sigh and get my legs out from the covers and turned to the side so that I was sitting on the bed ready to stand up.

It seems like I've been right all the time.

I don't fit to help anyone, not even myself… just rarely I can help others and me, but does that count? Don't I have to be there for other all the time, helping them when needed? I didn't know. Everyone told me to go the way I want to and to help as many as I can, they told me I can't help everyone from my friends, but is that true? Oh well…

I stood up and put some trousers on which were lying next to the bed. Moreover I put on a white T-shirt… I didn't bring one with me so I guess that its one from Snow's? Also the trousers weren't mine. I walked towards the window afterwards realizing it was or had to be in the middle of the night, it was still dark outside and no one was walking around. The sweat on my face has dried already but that didn't stop me from going downstairs and grab something to drink… I know, they didn't tell me where I can find all that and they also didn't tell me if I can just go for it… but I will pay it back to them, for sure.

I opened the door to the floor and noticed that the light was still on downstairs. "Someone's actually still awake?" I was thinking confused and made my way slowly to the stairs which should lead me downstairs. I walked as quiet as possible as I didn't want to wake just anybody… I didn't know where their bedrooms were, so I was on the safe side. I walked down the stairs quietly and in fact, someone needed to be awake as the light came out from a room… maybe it was Serah or Snow? All I want is something to drink… really… All I did drink in the past week was one tea earlier… I don't care for food at the moment, but my throat truly feels messed up right now. I reached the floor and looked to the left, there was no door; you could just simply go into the next room… I peaked around the corner and saw someone sitting on the couch doing something, I couldn't tell what as I only had a look on that person from behind. It must have been Serah, she got the same hair color… so there shouldn't be a problem with asking her for something to drink, she won't mind hopefully… I will pay back the money if needed. I walked into the room scratching the right side of my head slowly, I wasn't used to this situation… being at a whole different place and relying on people, I didn't like this but I had no choice.

"Serah?" I asked with a normal voice while still scratching my head.

"…" I didn't get a response though I was sure she heard me as she stopped with doing whatever she was doing. Earlier she was facing down to the ground or something… now she is facing the wall.

"I just wanted something to drink, if that's alright? No worries, I will give you the money back" I told her and stopped scratching my head and put my hands into the trouser pockets afterwards.

"…" again no answer, well… I wasn't sure but earlier she was way more talkative than this time. After a few seconds I remembered what she was telling me before she went out of the room, I forgot as I've been too tired, she got a sister who's staying downstairs while I am here. My eyes widened a bit as I understood why she wasn't answering. To my surprise she stood up. From behind I could tell that she was wearing a short skirt, some white clothes on her upper body and a red cape on her left shoulder. She must have been a soldier or something as she got a military rank; meaning she must know how to fight.

"I am not Serah" she suddenly responded. Her voice was colder and darker than the one from Serah, yet she still sounded very feminine. She then turned around and faced me with an annoyed expression on her face. "What do you want?"

"Just only something to drink" I said with no expression and my normal, almost bored voice. I was sure that she was the sister of Serah, they looked very alike.

"I mean, what you want _here_?" she repeated her question and got more specific this time around. I didn't know what to answer so I shut up. I didn't even know myself anymore what I wanted there, on their world …I didn't know. She pointed onto the sofa and I looked at the place she was marking with her right forefinger.

"Sit down, don't let me ask you twice" she commanded with a serious voice.

"Alright" I shrugged and made my way to the couch while she was sitting down again. I sat as far away from her as I could even though the couch wasn't that big, she sat on one side and I on the other one. Even though, only a half meter or something was separating us. I didn't look at her and just simply stared at the ground but I could tell that she was staring at me being annoyed or pissed.

"Why are you here?"  
>"I don't know…"<br>"What do you want from us?"  
>"I don't know…" I was still looking at the ground of the room as she suddenly grabbed the collar of the T-shirt making me face her angry face even though I didn't give her any expression with mine.<p>

"I tell you, you better not fool with me or us. If you have just anything planned and it has to do with us I will give you some hard times here on Gran Pulse!" she then let go off me and I moved my head back.  
>"Alright" I just simply said. I didn't care, really, I just only want my life back. She was staring at me, maybe because she didn't expect me to give up on this discussion that easily?<p>

"Who are you?" she then asked

"Cloud Strife, call me Cloud" I looked at her from the corner of my eye and looked back to the floor then again.

"Where are you from?"

"I've been born in Nibelheim, living in Edge right… now, if I can say so." I said still looking onto the ground. There were some awkward silent seconds after my last words. Suddenly she punched me into the face making me fly over the arm rest of the couch lying on the ground. I got myself up again and looked at her; she was glaring at me, even more than before. I just simply stood next to the sofa looking at her not caring about the punch.

"What was that for?" I asked her calmly.

"Don't you lie on me! You think I believe in your fairytales? Gaia? Nibelheim? What you think we are? Some idiots you can fool around with!"

"…" there was no need for me to answer that question of hers. I was honest but it seems like no one really believed me here.

"tzz"… she straightening up and looking away.

"I am not lying" I told her still with a calm voice. She was still facing away. "I really don't know… all I remember is that I've been driving on my motorbike making some deliveries… and next thing I remember is waking up in this house having a letter from someone with me who tells me to protect Cocoon and that help is needed" I said shrugging not knowing what I am talking about at all, just summarizing what I knew.

"This doesn't even make sense" she said turning her head slowly towards mine; still looking pretty annoyed. "Cocoon _is_ save, it's the planet up in the air which you might have seen earlier. It's being held up there with the crystal pillar from some frie-. Nothing will happen to it so there is no need to save it, you can go home"

"Tell me how" I told her while she was clenching her fists again, I knew what she wanted to do. She must really dislike me. I then looked to the ground and saw some blades… they were pretty clean, she must have cleaned them the time I went downstairs. That must have been what she was doing.

"Are you a soldier?" I asked her calm.

"Depends on who is asking" she said without any expressions.

"…"

"Yes. You can tell, right? At least a bit of your brain is still working as you guessed it right" She loves to crush other people I guess, otherwise I don't understand why she is acting up like that all the time. Well, at least I know now where she got the strength from.

"You take good care of your blades; that is good. As long as you are there for them they will be there for you." I told her.

"Like I didn't know that. What about you?" she asked me.

"Used to be a soldier too, working as a delivery boy" I answered calm.

"Yeah… that's better for you, you must have been really bad as a soldier… I can tell, just have a look what happened a few minutes ago" she said smirking a little. I didn't care.

"Maybe, whatever you say" I shrugged slightly and made my way back out of the room to get the rest sleep for this night.

"Didn't you want something to drink?" she then asked. That was her first question which wasn't filled with annoying or hate or just anything like that. I looked back at her as she was standing at the place she punched me.

"Just forget it; I've got enough for today." She was smirking and crossed her arms. I made my way out the room and was about to head up the stairs before she told me one more thing.

"I am Lightning." I smiled slightly not facing her and made my way up to my…, no, _her_ room to get this night done finally.

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><p><strong>Thanks :D, Hope you enjoy the way am going with the story!<br>**


	6. Need a hero?

**Hey I am back with a lil' update :)  
>First things first, I needed to change the Rating from my story from 'T' to 'M' due to future updates (containing of some violence e.g. blood and who knows what lol, I will see)<strong>

**Have fun reading!  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Answers to my reviewers:<strong>

**Gltichly:** Thanks, I thought so too! For me it is pretty ok, lol. According to the relationship.. no idea yet. In my writing document I am at chapter 8 and it's hard to make them get closer xD.

**i:** I don't like Vanille that much as she is way too childish, Fang and Lighting are my beloved char's from FF13. Anyways, I think my writing kind of fit the personality of Cloud and Lightning. Remember Lightning, she is protective, aggressive and fights for whatever she wants to protect. She beat up almost everyone in FF13 due to small things, e.g. Snow or giving Fang a slap etc. Moreover, Cloud is someone who is suddenly appearing around her in this story, someone she doesn't trust and as he is not able to answer her questions she thinks that he is faking her and her family which she now started caring for. You know how that will end up, she will get pissed. I know she is not that cold, but at the first sight and in this situation it should pretty well. As for Cloud, he was thoughtful and just lost in himself again. Emo-Cloud lol. He is thankful to them and as he didn't know her he didn't expect such a behaving from her… he got surprised that's why she was able to hit him (he didn't pay attention as he thought he was safe). He didn't care though, that's how he is in my opinion :). I just simply didn't want to go the way of "oh wow I like you already" you know? I just wanted to show the other side of their personality first and carry on very slowly…. Otherwise it would get boring way too fast (not only for the readers but also for the writer) :/.

**jizang:** Da hast du dein Update :D Viel Spaß beim lesen!

**yunadance6:** Thank you, I appreciate it. Glad you enjoy :D

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><p>C.6: Need a hero?<p>

It was the next morning; my throat was feeling alright as I got the idea of drinking some supply water from the bathroom. I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling while folding my hands behind my head and make it rest on them.

"Seems like she is a tough girl, I really do wonder where she got that strength from… my cheek indeed hurt yesterday. That was really impressing." I thought while rubbing the place she punched yesterday with my fingers. "I really thought it was Serah… they look so alike, at least from behind. If you look at their faces you can definitely separate them without any problems… Serah looks more cheerful, Lightning looks… tough, but still kind of cute" I continued my thoughts while smiling slightly. I then took the letter in my hands and read over it again and again. "Who is Cosmos? And what does this letter mean? Lightning said Cocoon is save… so why should I be saving it? And even more important, am I supposed to do it all on my own?" I sighed. "I don't even have a weapon anymore…I left my sword in Gaia…. Please Cosmos, whoever you are… tell me what I should be doing" I told myself while still looking up at the ceiling. I've been lost in my situation. Hopefully I could at least have some fun here… on Gran Pulse.

Suddenly I heard someone was knocking on the door.

"Cloud? Are you awake?" It must have been Serah; the voice was cheerful and kind.

"Yeah…" I told her.

"You can come downstairs if you want to eat some breakfast; we are going to eat soon. You can sit with us at the table and have some nice talk if you want. And oh, -" she then said as I interrupted her.

"I will be there in a few minutes, just need some time to dress myself up."

"That's what I wanted to talk about Cloud; I washed your clothes… I wanted to give them to you, can I come in and hand them in? Let me tell you… you need some new clothes, yours are kind of destroyed."

"Yeah, come in, you can give them to me. And I see… maybe I will buy something then soon if I get some money somewhere."

She then came in smiling, walking right next to my bed and laid down the clothes on my cover.

"See you downstairs in a few minutes, alright?" were her last words before she left the room and let me get dressed up. I jumped out of the bed and dressed up my clothes, there were some holes in my trousers; they indeed were messed up slightly. Luckily my turtleneck looked kind of still alright. Not that I cared for looking like an idiot in the publicity… I just didn't like myself.

I then made my way directly downstairs… I would have loved to do some things in the bathroom like brushing my teeth and such, but how? I had nothing with me, I was all alone… all alone, again. I stood still before walking down the stairs, I've been saddened. I shouldn't think about things like that, not now, not in this situation. Maybe everything will turn out well in the future and let me go back home. Maybe the whole situation on this planet wasn't that bad and my destiny would be fulfilled soon and the journey would be over, _maybe_. With those thoughts I cheered myself up a little and walked downstairs then, this time turning to the right to walk towards the kitchen which also had no door, just like the living room. It seemed to be modern over here. They all have been sitting at the huge dining table and there were loads of food on it. Serah was sitting next to Snow on one side and there was one seat free, next to _her_.

Snow and Serah smiled at me.  
>"Hey Cloud, slept well?" Snow been asking, I just simply nodded to him.<p>

"Hope you enjoy your washed clothes… sorry but I was not able to save them… they looked like that from the beginning" Serah told me in a sad voice.

"That's alright Serah" I smiled "You did more than was ever needed, thank you for that" I then looked at Lightning, she was sitting there, eating and totally ignoring me. I just simply walked near the table and saw that Snow and Serah were nodding to me smiling the time I was facing them, they knew that I wasn't sure about sitting next to her. They thought it was alright… so I sat down on the free seat.

"Take whatever you want Cloud, you are invited" Serah then said.

"Thank you again…, I really don't know how to thank you guys" I told them with no expression on my face, yet I have felt embarrassed…

"Maybe you should just leave us alone" I heard _her_ saying quietly.

"Lightning please! He isn't doing anything, he is lost, and how would you have felt in his situation?" Snow asked her but she just simply chuckled.

"No, it's alright, she is right" I started "I really need to find something for my own… I need to find some people whom I should be helping… I just… don't know where to start" I was looking at the food.

"Help with what?" Serah asked them, Snow has been staring at me. Lightning didn't care.

"Fight, so Cocoon will be safe" I said shrugging "I don't know why, how and where though"

"Fight?" Lightning said chuckling again. "From what I can tell you won't be even able to hold a knife. You are weak and useless. You don't fit to help anyone." Serah and Snow been glaring at her a bit, silence ruled the table. I was confused and starred at the food now. How could she read my mind? How? She was using the words which I did use not that long ago… I always thought I won't be able to help anyone; I never did fit to help anyone, not my friends, not my family, no one. Was she able to read me? For now... I learned the lesson that I was able to help people around me, not all… but some. I always tried my best.

"You seem to know a lot, Lightning" I said looking at her, trying to tease her a little.

"I don't, but I do know that you are weak and won't be able to help anyone here, moreover, there isn't even a problem."  
>"I just do what I've been asked to do. I don't mind what you are thinking of me, do whatever you want." She looked back at me after those words. She wasn't glaring, she also didn't seem to be annoyed or pissed. Her eyes just slightly widen before she concentrated on eating again.<p>

"I need to find a place t stay" I told Serah and Snow, they both looked at my with surprise.

"It is really alright if you stay here, really Cloud" Serah said "Isn't it, sis?" but no response from her. I know that I have been annoying her with my appearance.

"It is not Serah, thanks for the offer anyways. Some people don't want me to be around and I can understand that, I am just only a burden to you all. I am sorry for the trouble which I have caused over the past days, I didn't mean to. Serah been shaking her head like I didn't do anything wrong. She seemed to be a bit annoyed from Lightning. Her sister was kind of a pig head… just like me.

"Say… is there somewhere a weapon shop?" I asked curiously and calm, I didn't like to show them any expression on my face, I barely do.

"Yeah" Snow answered "it's not that far away from here, if you want we can go there later on… what kind of weapon you want to have?" Serah been looking curious at me and I could tell that Lightning was looking at me from the corner of her eye.

"A sword" I took 2 breads and put some cheese on them before eating them slowly looking at their reaction. They seemed to be confused. "Is something wrong?" I asked them afterwards and noticed that Lightning wasn't paying attention anymore. Instead she stood up and put her stuff away.

"Not really… I guess we didn't expect you to be a sword user. What kind of sword?" Snow asked.  
>"Broadsword of any kind" I said while finishing up my breads.<p>

"Oh… I think we maybe have something for you then… we should be heading there soon!" he said smiling a little while Serah nodded. I smiled slightly back at them.

"I am leaving for work, see you later guys." Lightning suddenly said and walked out of the door after grabbing her blade as we all looked at the already closed door. Something seemed to be troubling her.

"Thanks for the breakfast to you… I really appreciate it" I said smiling a little. Snow and Serah smiled back.

"Don't thank us for something like that, that was really nothing!" he answered. "Serah and I will take care of the dishes… you can get some fresh air on the terrace at the front door if you want, Cloud"

"You sure don't mind doing it on your own?" I asked while standing up.

"It's alright" they said simultaneously.

"Alright" I moved to the door and stepped out. I was kind of beautiful here… we have been right next to the beach and it was warm. It has to be summer or something. At the beach I could see Lightning, she was walking somewhere, I guess to work. I've been checking on her from the terrace.

~.Lightning POV [after she closed the door to leave the house]

I've been moving towards the beach slowly… my normal route on the way to the military camp of new Bodhum. I didn't want to stay around there anymore; I wasn't interested in listening to that nonsense of that liar at all…

"What he expect me to think? He is acting up like he knows how to fight, being all manly but as soon as I punch him into the face he flies all over the place like a Snow. Why is he lying to us? What does he have from that? There is not a chance I believe just anything he is telling us. He can fool my sister and that idiot Snow, but not me, no way. Not a chance" I thought myself being pissed at them "Why do they believe so easily in him? They don't even know him! Talking only nonsense stuff and thinks he got some visions… yeah right" I continued while looking at Cocoon "Fang and Vanille are protecting Cocoon, there is nothing wrong with it. He is telling fairytales and wants us to believe him…ridi-" my thought has been interrupted the time someone grabbed me from behind. I couldn't move at all, someone grabbed my arms and my legs while two other hands were grabbing my throat trying to choke me. Something was happening in front of me under the sand, as if something was about to come out. In shock I saw that actually there was something coming out! A Cie'th with 6 arms appeared in front of me and grabbed the same spots as the something which has been behind me. I felt that the first hands, which also must have been from an Cie'th, were disappearing the time this new Cie'th took control of me holding my up like an 'X'. Again, it also wanted to choke me.

"How… is that possible?" I looked at it while my eyes widened and starred at it, the second one came out of the sand and stand next to the other one facing me. "How can this be? Why are they here?" I felt that my throat was narrowing, I would black out pretty soon if they continue, I closed my eyes already in fear of death.

"Seems like it's over for me, I can barely see something" I thought to myself unable to do just anything. "This would be the perfect time for a hero to save me" I continued my thought while smiling a little internal. Suddenly I felt that the grip was losing a bit, making me wonder why and what happened. I opened my eyes as far as I could and saw weakly that a blue glowing fist was facing the Cie'th. I followed the hand over the arm to the body of the person with my eyes seeing the shape of the person of Cloud; he looked more serious at the Cie'th than I have ever seen him before. I didn't know he could look like that, I mean _that_ serious – after all he didn't care me punching him into the face yesterday.

"Cloud… help me…" was all I could say silently; looking weakly at him before closing my eyes again. A tear rolled down my cheek slowly which has been caused from the choking. "…please" I then thought to myself. It was not my time to die, not now.

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><p><strong>Thanks, hope you liked it. Had to change Lightnings personality a bit otherwise I would never end up in some flirty stuff lol, can't make her that cold ^_^<strong>


	7. There for you

**Yes :O.. another update :D**  
><strong>Anyways, I just only wanted to let you people know that <span>Lightning's behavior will change<span> towards Cloud in the future (you can see it a bit here already), she simply has been protective against Cloud in C.5! So don't worry please, I will get this right, promise :D**

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><p><strong>Answers to my reviewers:<strong>

**Glitchly:** Thanks! Yeah… it's not much but they will grow closer soon…

**Yunadance6:** Thank you! Appreciate your review :D

**Leonheart:** I know, don't worry I will be changing her from this chapter on. I just wanted to show in this 2 chapters that she can be protective to the things she adores and appreciates, fighting for things she loves and that's what she did during FF13 and here. Such as her family, I guess by the end of FF13 she knew what family is about. She didn't have a chance to lay low as she has been attacked all out of sudden from behind and was grabbed instantly. Like I said, don't worry, I will be changing her, starting in this chapter. I will get romantic at some chapters in the future.. lol, and she will be changing towards Cloud as she realizes he wants to help her.

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><p>C.7: There for you<p>

/ 5 minutes earlier, Cloud left the house from Lightning / Snow and Serah to get some fresh air on the terrace /

I went outside to get some fresh air, after all I've been inside for a while now; something I wasn't used to at all. Looking around and feeling the early breeze got me stunned as you could for sure say that from the terrace you have a wonderful forecast to the beach, to the sea and on the other side to the city. It didn't seem to be a big city, more something like a city which is still in construction. I slowly walked to the wooden fence which was surrounding the terrace and rested my hands on it, closed my eyes and took a deep breath while smiling slightly out of happiness. I've been fine after all that happened, I just only need to find a way back home now, even if that means that I have to fulfill my "destiny" here – whatever it was.

After opening my eyes again I noticed that I was able to see Lightning walking on the beach, I guessing she was on the way to her work or maybe she enjoyed the morning breeze too? I shrugged a little before turning my head to the right to have a look at the sea; I thought about taking a swim later this afternoon if I should be having the time, I wanted some relaxing time… that's all.

The time I turned my head back to Lightning I saw something strange, right behind her the sand seemed to be moving slightly and she didn't seem to notice it, she just simply continued walking towards her workplace. I did squint my eyes to have a better few but I didn't help much. It could be everything I thought; after all I was new to this planet and didn't know what's going on here… "It might be an anime, right?" I spoke to myself.

Suddenly some black arms came out of the sand almost looking like a spider though that something used it arms to push its body out of the sand. It was some black really ugly looking brute which I never did see before, I wasn't sure but to me it didn't look like it will be kind to Lightning so I decided to already jump over the fence and walk a few steps towards her just to have a better look. Next thing that happened was that this creature grabbed for her arms and legs from behind making Lightning scream as the creature pulled them to an 'X' form so she was unable to move, at all. Now I knew, I need to get there as fast as possible, I ran as fast as my legs could carry me getting the one and only materia ready which I never got rid of. The time I jumped over some small rocks I saw that the creature had turned her around and was actually chocking her, moreover there been 2 of them now. It already seemed like Lightning wasn't moving anymore.  
>"Am I too late?" I thought to myself in concern while my right hand started glowing sky blue like a flame, the not caring expression on my face has been changed with some serious looks. I hated this. I just got up… was about to get fine and now <em>this<em>. I will never get my peace, will I? While I got closer I saw that she was coughing, fighting for life and her body was shaking slightly but it was no use, she wouldn't free herself from that prison she was in. She was a friend even though it didn't seem like it for now… but, I thank her for letting me be in her house so I needed to do something, I couldn't let her die like that without trying to give her any help, she gave me help too! With one rush I now stood in front of one of the monsters while the other one was standing a few feet away simply staring at me doing nothing. I lifted my materia hand and rested the fist in the air straight before the face of the monster glaring at it.

Before I could do just anything I heard Lightning talk something, she couldn't say anything loud as her throat was being pushed together but she tried to.

"Cloud…" I looked away from the monster staring at her for a second from the corner of my eye "…help me". I noticed she was looking at me too, somehow, though her eyes seemed to be lost in the nothingness on their way to death. I gave her a slight nod and faced the monster again, opening my hand so that the palm was looking towards it and let the 'fire' take control of the situation. With a sudden jerk I unleashed a big lightning bolt fly towards the monster's face which made it splatter all over the place. The body stood there, without a head and still was lifting Lightning but a few seconds afterwards I noticed that the body would vanish and let her fall to the sand. I made my move towards her and grabbed her just in time before letting her fall.

"Lightning?" I asked with my calm voice staring at her closed eyes.  
>"Lightning!" I repeated still no answer yet but I noticed that she have been coughing slightly, she was okay. In the time I paid my attention to Lightning I forgot about the monster which was now rushing towards me, already being next to me, or let me say <em>us<em>, while I was widening my eyes.

"Damn it" I managed to speak out quietly before I wrapped myself around Lightning as the monster grabbed me and rushed towards some rocks making me crush hardly on it and cough in pain. The monster let go off _us_ and jumped back a few meters. I sank down onto my knees and looked at Lightning, nothing happened to her. I grabbed her carefully and made her sit on the sand leaning with the back onto the rock I just crushed into. While standing up slowly I licked some blood from my lips, blood which was running all the way down my face starting at the forehead.

"You gonna pay for that" I said quietly while walking slowly towards it. The monster still didn't care about what I was saying or doing, it seemed like it had no personality at all, and it was only there to cause problems. In the middle of its chest it had a red glowing core which must have been the weak point but I wasn't sure how to attack it without a weapon and without being actually sure if my theory was right. I didn't want to waste energy on this as I didn't have much left, I've been injured badly. In this fight I wasn't fighting for me, I was fighting for us; I wasn't able to just give up on this.

I clenched my fists and ran towards the monster and was about to punch the core as it disappeared into the sands below me. The time it jumped out of it right behind me I turned around 180 degrees and gave it a clear punch into the core making it precariously and stumble around for a few seconds. I ran back to Lightning noticing she had her eyes open now and was staring at me though she didn't move.

"Lightning!" I said with a raised voice.  
>"How can this be…?" she asked herself in confusion.<p>

"Your blade!"

"I…"

"Lightning!" I repeated, she didn't seem to listen to me much being really confused about something. I turned around and saw that the monster was fine again and charging something in its hands, it looked like a black ball. Looking back at Lightning I still didn't get an answer, something was definitely wrong her, maybe she knew what that thing was? If so, why would she be acting up like _that_?

"GIVE – ME – YOUR – DAMN – BLADE!" I repeated the last time before she shook her head quickly looking at me, her expression changed, she seemed to be thinking clearly again.

"Cloud!" she then said pointing at the enemy, I turned around and saw that the black ball of some kind of magic was rushing towards her. I kneeled down in front of her, resting each of my hands to one of the sides of her face at the rock to protect her. The sudden impact of the ball on my back was pushing my body against hers and let me rest my forehead on her shoulder as I felt immense pain. The time the pain was over I drew myself away from her slowly and I looked back up at her red face, smiling while she was staring at me with widened eyes.

"I hope.. you're alright" I managed to say before I sank down onto her legs about to faint.

"Cloud…!" she then cried out. I noticed she was moving my body in the same position I brought her in earlier. The time she stood in front of my while I was sitting down there I gave her a weak smile.

"Show me… how to do it" She rolled her eyes on that comment from me before turning the head towards the enemy getting ready to fight even though she was also still stumbling.

"You are an idiot" she then said looking back at me, giving me a small bold smile. "I am sorry for being late on my actions… I will tell you the story… later." she continued before turning her face back to the monster. I nodded to myself to that comment.

"You better do" I said coughing blood between the words. The monster with its 6 arms was already rushing towards her planning to grab her as she was doing the same and ran towards the monster with her blade. Right before they met she hold her blade in front of her making it spin vertically slicing off the monsters arms like the clock hand is working on its numbers all the time. The monster simply stood there not knowing what to do and Lightning took the chance, she made a 360 degree spin on the ground and stabbed her blade with that momentum she got perfectly in the core of the monster which caused that it was shattering. Like the first monster also this one stood there for a few more seconds before it vanished just like that, like it has never been there. She turned around, walked slowly towards me and gave me a small smile while I returned the same to her. After some seconds she was standing in front of me and her smile vanished.

"I am sorry… you look like that because of me" she said while she looked away.

"Help me up, let's go back" I said, not answering her question making her look back at me.

"Alright" she nodded and gave me a hand to pick me up.

"You definitely need to tell me what's going on here" I told her coughing blood again.

"I would like to know too…" she said confused watching me as I didn't feel safe on my feet yet. A few seconds past and I didn't know what to say to her reply. "You… need help? Looking at you makes me sick… you walk like being on a ship while there are some high forced waves" she said chuckling a little.  
>"Don't be too cheek to me" I said calm smiling at her and threw my left arm around her shoulders so that I get a backup for walking. She widened her eyes for a few seconds before starting to smile back weakly; I guess she didn't expect me to do so without asking her if those actions were alright. That close to each other we made our way back home.<p>

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><p><strong>Stay tuned, not sure when the next update gonna show up. Hope you enjoyed the this one :)<strong>  
><strong>Oh.. and sorry for grammar mistakes, not doing them on purpose lol, trying to improve my writings though.<strong>

**Have a good start into the new week!  
><strong>


	8. A new threat

**Hey there!**  
><strong>First things first, i decided to go back to 'T' with the rating as the story isn't that mature yet, might change at some time... I don't know.<strong>

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><p><strong>Answers to my reviewers:<strong>

**alunie:** Yup, there is something weird on my grammar as I am from germany lol :D And thank you.

**Glitchly**: I thought it was about time lol

**yunadance6:** Thanks, hope you will keep on enjoying!

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><p>C.8: A new threat<p>

Some minutes later, minutes of silence between us, we reached the home of Lightning. She rang the bell as I covered her pocket with my body and she didn't want to go for the key in there. Serah opened the door looking at us with extremely wide open eyes and an 'o' shaped mouth.

"He needs to rest, get the couch ready" she said to her. Serah rushed towards the living room and prepared the couch for me while Lightning brought me there. Of course I had to rest again… seems like no swimming this afternoon. She put me on the couch while Serah was in panic due to the situation not being able to ask what happened, though she came towards me and gave me a towel to get rid of the blood on my face. After washing it away I did lay down and rested the palm of my right hand on my forehead and looked at Serah first who was standing on the side of the couch where my feet were right behind the arm rest.

"Wow…" I simply managed to say within a sigh to all what happened just now before looking at Lightning who just sat down in the seat next to the couch looking into the nothingness.

"I know…" Lightning said while she was turning her head towards me.

Serah still didn't say anything waiting for someone of us to explain what happened; Snow didn't seem to be downstairs too. Both of us, me and Lightning, were staring at each other for some moments.

"Take a break, Cloud" Lightning then said looking at me first and turning her head to Serah then. "I will tell you what happened in the past afterwards… and Serah, I will tell you what was going on the time he is feeling better" she looked back at me smiling a bit; I turned my head away as I couldn't stand her smile.

'_She is so tough but yet so fragile and somewhat cute. Guess she was simply being protective the night she hit me, not wanting anyone to mess up her family… just like me. I think she is that kind of girl that…'_ the thoughts of her made me smile weakly as they drifted off.

"All right, I am going to take a short nap then" I said looking at my hands after I wiped some more blood from my lips with them. No one did response but Serah left the room after Lightnings words, I expected _her_ to leave too but where should she be going? First I've been sleeping in her room… now I am even taking her space on the couch. I turned my head to face her again noticing she has been fallen asleep already in the seat, sitting there with crossed legs and her head laying on her shoulder. The sight of hers made me stand up and took her under the covers which Serah prepared for me, I didn't need it. I then also gave her the pillow so that she would sleep a bit more comfortable as I already took her couch away. I stared at her a few more seconds before turning away and taking the few steps back towards the couch.

"Cloud…!" I heard her saying quietly making me turn towards her immediately to notice she was still sleeping. _'She must be dreaming? '_ I thought looking puzzled at her. A few more seconds afterwards I couldn't help but smile at her as she was smiling while sleeping. _'She looks so innocent' _I thought while my cheeks started heating up as I suddenly remembered how close I have been to her during the battle, I felt uncomfortable for that right now. I shook my head slightly and got my thoughts right. _'I think it's better if I take my nap now before my thoughts drift somewhere else again'_ with those thoughts I was falling down into the couch, closing my eyes and doze off.

Later this day I woke up again, turning my head to the clock next to the TV which told me that it was barely 2pm. I turned my head further towards her noticing that she was staring at me with a slight smile. I immediately turned my head back as I felt embarrassed.

"You did this, didn't you?" she asked then. The tone of her voice changed towards me since this morning… yesterday and this morning she wasn't even paying attention to me, now… she was talking in some kind of soft voice which in fact made me happy and feel embarrassed. So I decided to not face her just yet but look up at the ceiling.

'_Yes'_… I thought.

"What do you mean?" I asked her though.

"Covers? Pillow? Get it?" she has been chuckling.

"Oh… yeah" I quietly answered being still embarrassed but never got a response on that reply.

"Are you too afraid to face me while we are talking?" her voice seemed to be calm.

'_Somewhat yeah…' _my thoughts continued.

"No… it's just that…" I turned my head back to her, she was still smiling weakly.

"It's just what?" she asked confused lifting an eyebrow.

'_You make me feel embarrassed; I don't feel comfy next to you and I don't know why.' _

"Nothing" I answered calm.

"So…" she was facing away from me "… you didn't lie after all, right?"

'_Wait! Is she being embarrassed now?' _

"You are talking about-" she cut me off.

"Your story, everything you told me last night"

"No, there was no need to lie… I've been honest. I don't know why I am here, I don't know whom I should be searching for, I don't know whom to help, I don't know what's my task here on Gran Pulse, I don't know anything…" I said sitting up and looking to the floor lost in thoughts.

"I am sorry" she then answered quietly and continued a few seconds afterwards... "I really mean it".

"Sorry for what?" I looked up surprised and confused.

"Yesterday"

"oh…" I threw my hand up to my head to scratch the back of it "already forgot about that, no big deal." I gave her a smile to make her feel that it was alright. She turned her face to me, smiled slightly back and gave me a nod.

"Actually you are even a fighter, aren't you? So you weren't lying on that either."

"I wasn't lying at all, Lightning" I confessed to her with an kind of serious tone so she would understand that I am not a fool who just stepped by to cause some trouble, though I turned my face away.

"Thank you" she then suddenly said after a few seconds. My head turned back to her letting my eyes jump onto her face. She was smiling, not weakly, but cheerfully wide. I couldn't help but blush slightly and smile back.

'_She's cute…'_

"I have to thank you, otherwise I would have been a goner right now" I replied being embarrassed from her smile. She gave me a nod.

"You are feeling any better?"

"Kind of, how about you?"

"Same" she said and looked towards the door of the living room as Serah came in.

"Oh…you two are awake… slept good?" Both of us just simply gave her a nod. "Feeling any better?" she continued, and again, we gave her a slight nod.

"Where is Snow anyways?" Lightning asked curious "… not that I care, I just want to know."

"He went somewhere… I guess he wanted to check on that shop you know?" Serah answered to her sister. My head was turning back and forth towards them while they were talking. Lightning didn't give her as reply to that but started with a whole different topic.

"I have been attacked by Cie'th and would be dead by now if Cloud wouldn't have been there earlier" she then said, tone was serious.

"How can that be? Why are there Cie'th again? We defeated them a year ago!" Serah asked and cleared up the situation for me in a shock.

"I would love to know that too…yeah, all Fal'Cie have been killed, but somehow the L'Cie's aren't dead yet. Or there must be a new Fal'Cie somewhere." Lightning replied, leaving Serah still in a shock. I didn't get anything.

"What are you talking about? Fall see? Le see? Seeth? Fall and see what?" I asked confused, Lightning gave me a smile on my pronunciations.

"Alright listen Cloud… a few years ago there have been Fal'Cie on this planet, to make it easy to understand for you just compare them to any kind of 'god' which decided over the lives of elected humans. I lived on Cocoon back then and the Fal'Cie were taking control of some of the people over there, the elected ones."

"Why?"

"They wanted to destroy Cocoon. But they didn't do it on their own, they used humans for that."

"How?"

"They branded humans… giving them a task which they should be fulfilling. Most of the time the task was something which would bring Cocoon into a misery if it would be fulfilled correctly. If you fulfill your task you will be set into crystal, sleeping an eternal sleep. If you don't fulfill your task however, you will turn into a Cie'th. A slave of the Fal'Cie."

"So… the things we fought earlier…?"

"Have been Cie'th, yeah. I don't know how that is possible but they were there."

"I see…"

"You said someone left you a letter right?" I gave her nod. "Save Cocoon? I wonder why… maybe someone wants to make Cocoon fall down onto Gran Pulse… life would be gone then, completely. Impossible…" She looked away like she was lost in thoughts, narrowing her eyes.

"Maybe we should protect Cocoon from this to happen…?" I answered confused and not being sure, all this was kind of hard to get for me. "Maybe that's the reason why I am here."

"Maybe" Lightning said, also being unsure.  
>"I hope Vanille and Fang are alright…." Serah answered being kind of upset.<p>

"Who are they?" I asked, didn't matter to me who answered but Lightning did.

"Our friends, they are sleeping in the big crystal which is holding Cocoon up in the sky, eternal sleep. I thought they will take care of Cocoon for a long time… guess I was wrong."  
>"I see…" I sighed. "Well, this is kind of hard to get for me with those 'teeths' but I will help you out" I said calm. Lightning and Serah were looking at me with a small smile.<p>

"You have been the one who were helping Cocoon back then already, right?" I asked as Lightning nodded, Serah remained silent.

"Seems like I found the people already which I have to be with…" I said sitting up. _'This will make me spend more time with Lightning then…'_ I thought which made me smile. "I am in, you can count on me" I announced while looking towards Lightning as my eyes widened the time I looked at her chest.

"Lightning… your chest! Why is it glowing red?" I screamed out not knowing what's going on until I saw that my neck started to glow red on the left side too. Both of us looked at each other in shock, not knowing what this could be. I turned my head to Serah for a few seconds before turning it back to Lightning. Serah shook her head while the glowing grew stronger.

"Oh no…" Lightning whispered with a shock tone in her voice. Did she know what was going on?

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><p><strong>That's it again^^<strong>

**Would be neat if you could tell me what you want to see or what you would like to see changing, then I might bring it into this story! Not sure if I have everything in it so far... lol**

**See you next time!**


	9. Whatever tomorrow brings

**Hey there,**

**me again with a short update :). Hope you enjoy!  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Answers to my reviewers:<strong>

**Glitchly:** Thank you, trying my best to keep some excitement alive. The story will be kind of long in the end i guess lol.

**i:** Glad you were happy to read that much haha. Well thank you, I am always trying to think ahead so that I can get the best out of a situation. Hope you enjoyed. And I don't know... I didn't want to give him the fisting fights as I thought that is Tifa's part in the FF7 series... I didn't want to take it away from her and put Cloud on the same level with her as she wouldn't be anything special anymore. Therefore I decided to go the way which you were able to read in the last chapter :)

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><p>C.9: Whatever tomorrow brings...<p>

I've been staring at her as the glowing got weaker and faded away completely, she simply stared back with widened eyes. I didn't pay any attention to Serah yet.

"Lightning, what is this?" I asked her curious while touching my neck feeling nothing special about it.

"This is…" she started talking while she started to unzip the zipper of her brown turtleneck very slowly. I stayed completely calm but still I felt that I was about to blush as she is going to reveal some parts of her upper body, the chest.

'_What is this all about now again… what just happened to us?'_ I thought and turned my head to Serah who was staring at Lightnings actions _'It has to do with the Cie'th I guess as she didn't get affected at all…'_ I continued before looking back at Lightning who was still unzipping her turtleneck.

"… the L'Cie brand" she finished her sentence looking at me while she revealed the one on her chest to me the time the turtleneck pullover was unzipped to a certain point of her body. The view made me blush and look down to the ground immediately. It looked like a red core in the middle with some black stripes to the north and the south; the core must have been glowing that bright a few seconds ago. "How is that possible? There wasn't any Fal'Cie around, Serah? Do you have any ideas?" she asked her sister while I was still looking at the ground, trying to get the control of my feelings back.

"I don't know…" I heard her saying, she sounded kind of upset… like it was something bad. "Why you again?" she asked but no one answered as no one knew.

Suddenly I felt someone's hand touching my neck softly which made me look up immediately just to notice that it was Lightning who was now standing right in front of me and giving me a friendly but not worried smile, even though the situation seemed to be messed up according to Serah's actions.

"What… is it?" I asked her while staring into her eyes forgetting about anything else.

'_She got so beautiful eyes…'_

"Don't you want to know more about what just happened, Cloud? You should, you are affected too." She said after taking her hand away and sitting down on the table right in front of me. I gave her a nod.

"This brand… is what makes L'Cie to either be an Cie'th or and L'Cie which sleeps eternally" she announced, her smile faded as her tone sounded more serious.

"Meaning… we are L'Cie now, right?" I asked confused, still not getting all of this Cie something stuff.

"Yes, sadly I didn't see what I have to do to fulfill my destiny… but what is even more important, why are we L'Cie's?" she crossed her arms and looked at Serah.

"Maybe… we were some kind of infected in the battle earlier. Your sister isn't infected… so that might be it though I have no clue"

"Impossible, they aren't able to infect others." She clarified.

"Well… you also said they shouldn't be here, but they were. Things have changed." I replied while she looked back at me.

"He might be right Light…" Serah said who was still standing next to the couch. Lightning looked down at the ground, looking somewhat upset.

'_This is a mess… there are way too many problems around here and we still don't know who is pulling the strings behind all this…I need to cheer her up… I guess she already got some experience with this. I had geostigma, I had something bad already from which I thought I won't be able to cure it… after all, we were able to cure it. We have to fight, that's what Tifa taught me, never give up a fight until it is over for real. Thank you Tifa, I will make use of this tip now…Alright…'_

I sighed quietly before standing up and looking at Lightning who was still looking down to the ground. _'Funny… earlier I've been doing that, now it's her turn…' _Without thinking I rested my right hand under her chin and lifted her head gently, she was staring at me being kind of lost. Even though I didn't know what those brands mean for now, I did know that they aren't anything good – otherwise Lightning wouldn't act up like that. I stared back into her eyes and gave her a weak smile.

"Whatever tomorrow brings I'll be here with open arms for you, Lightning" I noticed she was smiling weakly back yet I was about to blush again, I didn't want to use those words… they just came; I couldn't stand her sadness.

I put my hands into my trouser pockets and decided to get some fresh air again; I walked past Serah towards the door, went through it without saying anything to them and closed it behind me. I made my way to the small rocks which I've been jumping over earlier to sit on them and look at the sea. I needed this freedom at times, that's why I used to be a delivery boy, I love it.

_'I hope she is alright… I need to help her as good as I can; her and everyone else.' _I thought while looking at the palm of my hands which hopefully will be some help for Gran Pulse.

-x-

~.Lightning POV

I watched him suddenly walking out of the house with a confused expression on my face.

'_What's wrong with him now?'_

I looked up to Serah who was smiling slightly and giving me a wink.

"What?" I asked her, looking more confused than before lifting an eyebrow.

"Nice words from him for you sis, follow him" she said giving me another wink.

"Shut up Serah…" I replied with an embarrassed tone in my voice while blushing slightly which made her giggle softly. "You know we have other problems now…"

"Are you feeling alright with this? I don't know what to say… really…" she said being upset. I stood up and started walking towards her to give her a soft hug.

"I'll be fine, Serah" I told her smiling a bit.

"…yeah, you got Cloud around you; that must be why" she answered giggling again.

"…Serah…." I rolled my eyes on her and broke apart from the hug looking at her while she gave me another wink. "Please stop teasing me… there is nothing, he is just simply helping us, alright?"

"You don't really want me to believe that, right? I clearly see that you like him!" she announced smiling.

"…" I've been out of words, didn't know what to answer as Snow suddenly walked into the house standing next to us.

'_Thank god!' _I thought, I've never been happy that Snow came back home but this time is an exception, I didn't want to continue this talk with my sister so here we go, miracles come true after all sometimes. I am not into this topic anyways, I dislike it.

"Snow!" Serah jumped into his arms while he hugged her back.

"What's wrong? I've been away for like 3 hours and you seem to be worried a damn lot?" he answered confused. I looked away, I didn't care.

"Lightning and Cloud…" Serah started and pulled away from the hug.

"What's wrong with them? Did they kiss?" he interrupted her.

"W-WHAT?" I immediately looked at him and lifted my fist glaring at him.

"Nothing Light, nothing! Only teasing a bit, alright?" He lifted both his hands in defense and smiled like a dork.

"Better be, I have other problems than your childish talks, grow up Snow!" I clarified to him being annoyed. I hate him, he is such a big baby and in my eyes useless. Still, my sister loves him… that's alright; I accepted that they are going to marry… if that's what she wants I won't stand in her way after all.

"So what is it Serah?" he said looking back at her.

"They are L'Cie, they have the brand…" she answered being upset again.

"Really?" he looked at me and I gave him a slight nod.

"Show me" Snow then said suddenly.

"No, it's on my chest like the one I had before already…"

"Please?"

"What the…? Are you kidding again?" I asked him with an annoyed tone.

"Uhm… well… ohm… yeah" he answered being unsure.

'_Whatever kidding, you are a pervert.'_

"You are an annoying idiot Snow" I answered him while making my way towards the door just about to open it.

"I've been at the weapon shop, Lightning"

"So…?" I answered waiting at the door with my hand on the door knob.

"They got a new sword, a Broadsword"

"So…? You want me to pull everything out of your nose you baby?" I said still not turning around towards him.

"They got it _8_ days ago; he didn't want to show me… he said that he is waiting for a special someone to finally pick it up"

'_8 days? That's the same day my sister has found him on the beach? Maybe it's his?'_

"I see" I answered.

"You should have a look at it... though I don't know why he is waiting for the special someone. Anyways, talk to the shop keeper about it; he doesn't have it in the shop but somewhere in his storage room. Maybe you will find something out about it." He said.

"Why… did you take that long?" Serah asked him suddenly.

"It took me a while to get the shop keeper to talk my love. Anyways, how did you get the brand Lightning, I thought we defeated them all back then?"

"I thought so too, guess we were wrong." I answered.

"… and where did you get it from?" he repeated the question.

"Snow, don't be annoying, if I knew it I would have told you just a few seconds ago, I don't know where I got it from, all I can do is guess."

"And what is your guess?"

"Cloud said it might be some kind of virus which is being carried over just simply by touching the Cie'th. Not sure if that is true, but it could be." I shrugged, still facing the door.

"Impossible." He said with a serious tone in his voice. I got annoyed, he was even more naïve than I have been earlier.

"There is only one thing that's impossible Snow." I answered opening the door.

"What is it?" he asked curious.

"That your brain will grow bigger than a pea someday" I answered walking through the door and closing it behind me. As soon as I walked out of the house I saw Cloud already sitting on some rocks near the beach, I made my way towards him.

'_Thanks anyways for the tip Snow; we will be going there… if he wants a weapon after all. Maybe he wants to run away from the fight as he already left the house some minutes ago though, I hope not… I don't want to have a journey with that jackass named Snow again.' _Only a few meters separated me from Cloud…

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading, see you soon(er or later :D), stay tuned!<strong>

**Review and comment, just let me know what you think so far!**


	10. Maybe you

**First of all I wanted to say thank you to everyone who is taking the time to review my chapters and give me an idea of if I am doing alright and if you are enjoying my story! Actually I am happy you liked the last chapter as I liked it too lol. I got some great ideas for this story already, I just simply need to reach the areas of the story where I can implement them!**

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><p>C.10: Maybe you<p>

I've been sitting on a small rock, resting my elbows on my thighs and staring into the sea; thinking about everything that had happened so far and might happen in the future. The sound of the sea, the breeze of the sea; it helped me to relax and ease my mind. After closing my eyes the inner self took control of me.

'_I wonder… I wonder how Tifa and the kids are doing. I am some weeks away already, I miss them…not only them, but also my friends… I learned to cherish them just only to get separated from them again a few months afterwards.'_ I opened my eyes and grabbed the letter which has been in my trouser pocket to read over it again. _'Cosmos, heh? What is your plan with me? I hope you will let me go back home when all this is done the way you wish for. I have my wishes too you know? My home, my family, my life, I want it back.'_ I put the letter back into my pocket and gave out a sigh while looking down to the nice looking white sand. _'It's nice here too… don't get me wrong… it's just not the same like home. I know no one here… I am all alone, all alone… again by myself…'_

"Cloud!." I heard a girl call out my name pulling me out of my thoughts. It must have been Lightning, I recognized her voice. She was coming near me, still on her way.

"Cloud." she repeated, this time in a lower voice, she was closer to me. I didn't turn my head towards her… My mind drifted to the words which I have just told her in the house, it was embarrassing. _'I didn't even manage to say such kind words to Tifa, never, in the past 23 years. And to her? I did it… just like that; on the second day of knowing her… this is hilarious.'_ I thought as she finally stood behind me.

"Cloud?" I lifted my head slightly but didn't turn towards her yet.

"May I sit down?" she continued, I guess she wanted to sit on the same rock I have been sitting on, right next to me. Well, why not? I gave her a nod so she would know that I am actually fine with it. She didn't wait that long and sat down straight after my confirmation.

"Are you alright?" she asked somewhat worried.

"Yeah" I replied in my normal calm voice not wanting to give her any of my frustrations.

"Sure?" she asked as I gave her a nod.

"How about you, Light?" I asked back not facing her.

"I think I am… yeah" she replied slowly, she wasn't facing me either.

"Good"

"Why did you run off just like that?"

"I don't know" I answered shrugging. I wasn't sure, maybe I've been embarrassed? Or did I need to think? Needing time for my own?

"Say…" she started but remained silent for a few seconds. "… are you thinking about something?"

"Why are you asking?"

"I don't know… just curious I guess, no need to answer me if you don't like, I am not forcing you."

"Yeah" I said with a nod after some silent seconds.

"What about?" she asked, still not facing me but looking at the sand, just like I did.

"I wonder how everything is going at the moment on my planet you know…" I replied frustrated. It didn't matter; I had to tell her sooner or later anyways so I decided to go for it now. I couldn't hide my feelings forever.

"I see…especially your friends I guess?"

"Well yeah… my friends with which I've been travelling a lot round the world back then when we had our fight… I wonder how they are doing you know. Moreover I would love to know about my belongings, like my motorbike… and about my family, my kids…" I said looking up now noticing that her face shoot towards me after I finished the sentence. I turned my face towards hers and saw that she widened her eyes slightly.

"You have kids?"

"Well… if you can say so, yeah." I replied slowly. Her eyes went slightly bigger.

"You must be missing your wife, right?" she asked slowly before looking down to the sand again.

"What?" I asked as my eyes widened a bit.

"Your wife" she faced me again "you must be married, right?"

"No" I replied shaking my head weakly. "I am just living with my childhood friend in a bar and we adopted a boy… and the girl of my best friend is living with us too at times, that's all about it" I couldn't help but smile a bit. _'Married? Me?'_

"Oh… I see" she smiled back at me slightly.

"Why are you asking anyways?"

"Asking what?"

"If I am married, are you?" I asked back just simply because she asked me, so why not?

"No!" she announced immediately. "I got no time for that, not now." I gave her an understanding nod.

"The brand…" I started to get into a new topic.  
>"Yeah?"<br>"How long will it take until we, let's say, transform?" I asked her curious.

"I don't know… it always depends on how we are doing and what we are doing… the question is what is the task we need to do…" she answered slowly. She obviously didn't like this topic but I needed to know.

"Is there a way we can be healed before even turning into one of the possibilities?"

"Normally not… but some people said they were healed after they killed the Fal'Cie which made them be a L'Cie" she shrugged.

"Easy then, all we have to do is to kill him" I said trying to give her some confident.

"… not really, first we don't know who did this to us and secondly we don't even know if it will work" she answered looking down.

"We have to try it; if we don't try… then we have already lost, Lightning."

"Maybe you are right, yeah…"

"And…"

"Hm?" she was facing towards me again.

"… is there a way to heal someone who already turned into crystal or an Cie'th?" I asked her curious.

"I can't tell, Cloud." She started and was quiet for a few seconds before continuing with her answer. "Some people stated that the methods which I already told you work at times… and some other say that there might also be a different way but this could be some kind of a lie, so I guess it's not worth mentioning… it is ridiculous."

"What is it?" I wanted to know even if it is ridiculous.

"Some people said…" she started.

"Said what?"

"…that some of their relatives got healed from their situation due to a summon up of big emotions in any way, a way I have no clue of, they didn't go precisely on that explanation" she shrugged while facing me.

"Aha…" I answered not knowing what she was talking about. "Trying is the way to go if we should get that far, though I hope we won't need any of these things to be honest."

"Same for me… I don't want transform into just anything; I am fine with what I am." She answered.

"Lightning?" my tone went serious.

"Ha?" she widened her eyes a bit due to my voice and looked at me.

"If I turn into a Cie'th someday…" I was still looking at her.

"Yeah?" she looked with those eyes at me.

"Kill me" I stated without hesitation.

"Don't worry, I will" she said giving me a slight smile.

"Thanks…" I nodded.

"But…!" she continued as I looked confused at her.

"What?"

"You have to do me a favor then"

"What is it?"

"If I turn into one, you have to kill me too" I faced away and waited a few seconds before I gave her my answer.

'_No, I won't… not before trying to save you.'_

"Yes"

"Good that this topic is done then" she said looking away now as I looked back at her. Her eyes tell me that she was lost in thoughts, some kind of concerned or worried.

'_Maybe she wouldn't kill me too straight away… who knows.'_

"Lightning?" I said still looking at her.

"Yes, Cloud?" she replied while looking back at me.

"I need a weapon" I said smiling a bit.

"Oh yeah… good that you are reminding me of that. Snow told me that he has been at the weapon shop and we should step by sooner or later as he found out something interesting."

"What do you mean with 'interesting'? I asked her confused.

"The shop keeper told Snow that he got some strange sword that he found 8 days ago and don't want to sell to just anyone but one person"

"One person?" I asked even more confused.

"I don't know what that supposes to mean" she shrugged.

"Well me neither."

"But you know, 8 days ago you have been found here in the sea… it might be yours"

"We should be going then, we will find out then." She gave me a nod and was about to stand up as I called her name to refuse her actions.

"Lightning?"

"What's wrong now?" she said facing me.

"Why are you acting… so kind towards me now after being so annoyed of me this morning and yesterday night? I mean… you aren't even cursing on me just once" I asked her because I really wanted to know the reason. Earlier she has been like a witch… and now? She did totally change, and I mean it, totally!

"You aren't as useless as I expected you to be before" she said giving me a smirk. Here you go, she is back. Again, she was half way up as I grabbed her hand unknowingly and refused her actions once more.

"There is one more thing I want to know as we will be going on a journey soon, if you don't mind" I said blushing slightly due to the touch.

"W-what?" she said blushing a little too.

"Lightning isn't your real name, is it?" I finished my question as I took my hand away from hers; I didn't feel comfortable touching her, her skin felt way too… smooth.

"You might be right, why are you asking?" she said as her cheeks were still light red though she was smirking

"I just only wanted to know… Lightning doesn't seem to be your real name you know." I said shrugging and looking away from her making her sigh and sit down next to me again.

"Stay with Lightning" she announced with a calm voice.

"So you won't be telling me, right?" I asked her looking back at her.

"No…" she said nodding once remaining silent before she did continue. "Not many people know my story, not many people know my name and to be honest, I don't want to tell it to just anyone anymore in the future except to one person but that is going to take a while."

"One person?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"…Yeah" she nodded again.

"What do you mean?"

"The person I want to be with for the rest of my life will be the next and last person who will get to know to my real name from me, a person who cherishes me the way I am." she announced blushing slightly again not facing me.

"I see… well, then it doesn't matter… sorry, I didn't want to get too personal. I don't know your story after all… Good luck anyways" I said looking back to the sea.

"Thanks… we should be going, Cloud" she then announced standing up as I looked to the sea for a few more seconds.

~. Lightning POV

I have been looking down on him, he was still sitting on the rock being lost in thoughts I guess.

'_Maybe someday…. Maybe you will be that person who will get to know to my story, Cloud'_ I thought smiling a bit internal.


	11. Confusion

**Hey, back again with a really short update (my shortest chapter so far I guess), I wrote this today while I had to wait for something. A flu is killing me at the moment, but I hope i will be still able to update soon again xD. **

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><p><strong>Anyways, I am really really happy that you guys liked my last chapter that much! I will be going through adventure and romantic from now on, though some chapters are more adventure based and some are more romantic based as you can tell! But don't worry, there will be some cool things going on! :D This chapter is more adventure based I would say!<strong>

**yunadance6:** Thank you so much, this makes me happy!

**ken08002:** Same, so nice words, thank you, don't know what to say lol, made me really happy xD.

**i:** lala, don't know what to say xDDDD. Yeah I leave some things unanswered so that I can jump back to it when the time fits better and they get to know better to each other ;). And well, who knows when and how they confess? Time will tell :D

**Glitchly:** Thank youuuuuuu, this is so aweawesome :D

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><p>C.11: Confusion<p>

I turned my head towards her and noticed she was smiling slightly and reaching her hand for mine to help me up. She was also giving me a gesture with her head that we should be going. I took her hand and she pulled me up to my feet. We started walking towards the city centre to reach the place we have been speaking of, the weapon shop. It has been awkwardly quiet between us while we were walking, most likely because both of us didn't seem to be that good talkers. Here and then we found some words to exchange though.

"Say…" I started as we were making our way.

"Hm?" she mumbled without looking at me.

"…you have been an L'Cie already, right?" All she did was giving me a confirming nod; I guess she didn't like that topic at all. "How… have you been saved from the destiny which lies upon them; I mean, on the L'Cie?" I turned my head towards her the time I finished my sentence.

"I don't know" was all she said, simply straight forward.

"You don't know?" I raised my eyebrows.

"No" she confirmed her answer calm while she shook her head. I was about to continue with another question as I noticed she wasn't done with her answer yet. "We saved Gran Pulse and Cocoon back then, all I remember afterwards is that our destiny has been fulfilled… and we all turned into crystal, we were supposed to sleep forever…" she continued slowly without giving me a single look.

"How come… you aren't?"

"I don't know" she replied after turning her face towards me with a small smile on her lips and shrugging slightly.

"I see…" I said wiping my hand through my hair. "This all is so confusing to me."

"Not only to you" she answered with a serious tone in her voice as she turned her head away again.

"Hmph"; I sighed putting my hands into my trouser pockets walking next to her remaining silent for a while.

"Are you well known?" she suddenly asked some minutes later.

"What do you mean?"

"On your …planet…, are you well known?" I noticed right here that she had some hard time believing me with this 'planet' stuff, well… after all it is hard to believe that I am not from here. I just hoped she is believing me in that, I wasn't lying, not at all, I didn't have any reason to lie to just anyone here…

"What for?" I didn't know what she was talking about.

"Well, you said you are a soldier or something, are you well known there?"

"Let's just say I am not unknown…" I answered embarrassed.

"What exactly did you do over there?"

"If you want to put it that way I can say that I and my friends saved the world twice from…" I didn't finish, I didn't want to.

"… from?" she asked turning her face towards me again

"…Someone, I am sorry." I said looking down. "…maybe another day"

"That's alright" she answered me before facing away again.

On our way towards the shop I noticed some strange guy who was passing us. At the time he was on our height I clearly noticed that he was giving me a smirk and looked at me from the corner of his eyes.

"What…" I whispered turning my head back to look after him. He had purple hair with some feathers attached in it. He was wearing a fighting overall, that's at least how it looked like to me. But the strangest thing about him was the big sword on his back which looked awkward; moreover it seemed to have a red eye… I have never seen something like that before.

"What is it?" Lightning asked.

"Nothing" I replied and turned back again. She didn't seem to care about him or maybe these outfits and those kinds of swords are normal here, here on this planet.

"Are you sure?"  
>"Yeah… just that guy behind us, you noticed him?" I said turning around to point my finger on him noticing he was <em>gone<em>.

"Which?" she asked after she did turn around too.

"Ohm…I… nevermind" I answered confused, turning back again walking towards the centre.

"We are almost there!" she then said as she also continued walking.

'_Now someone please tell me what I have just seen right there? I for sure did see him but how was he able to just simply disappear?'_ I thought while I narrowed my eyes. _'What is even more important to me is why he was giving me this expression and why Lightning didn't even seem to notice him, at all! Something is being fishy here, right at this moment.'_

"Cloud?" she looked at me with and questioning expression in her face after twitching my cheek with her right hand.

"What?"

"Are you sure you're alright? I had to repeat your name like 7 times before you actually respond to me" she said after she stopped walking.

"Yeah…, I am sorry… just thinking" I answered her with a nod looking deep into her eyes. She smiled slightly before she continued walking..

_'I tell you I could get lost in those eyes… they seem to be so cold but still they somehow attract me… I don't know any other person who is like her, no one. Her personality seems to be unique to me, somehow.'_ I thought watching her as she was already a few feet ahead_. 'She's cute'_ I finished my thought with a small smile on my lips before I was catching up on so that I was walking right next to her again.

"There is still something I wanted to ask you Cloud. If you allow me to do so of course" she said the time we were heading into the city centre.

"Just ask… I can't judge your question before you haven't asked me. You will know if I am fine with it the time I give you an answer or remain silent."

"Whom have you been traveling with?"  
>"My friends" I asked without hesitation. They were my friends, I learned that. There were all the time around me, next to me, helping me and cherishing what I did… they didn't care if I would have failed in the past as long as I tried my best in doing whatever needed to be done. I was thankful for them… they were the ones who opened my eyes after such a long time of dilly-dallying.<p>

"…" she went quiet as if she wanted to hear more from me, I knew that she wasn't satisfied with my answer. Her eyes were slowly lowering towards the ground as we were walking, she was disappointed.

"Well… there are some people which I really cherish. Really lucky I met them as they helped me in any situation. There are… Cait Sith, Red XIII, Vincent, Cid, Barret, Yuffie, Tifa and 2 more which I won't ever forget…" I said also looking down now.

"I see… who is the one you are living with?" she asked as she looked at me.

"Tifa" I announced.

"And… they all were specialized on weapons or something? What did Tifa do?"

"Crush them" I said smiling a little.

"How?"

"Beating everyone's ass up with her fighting style. Some women use their hands to slice and smash ingredients for the food they are going to cook. Tifa is using her hands to slice and smash our enemies." I looked at her smiling noticing she was smiling back.

"How come you are specialized on a sword?" she continued facing away again.

"I could ask you the same you know?" I replied with a calm voice.

"I guess so, but I asked first"

"…"

"So?"

"…"

"Why?"

"Zack" I said clenching my fists in my trouser pockets narrowing my eyes yet again.

"Your friend?"

"More than that." I continued.

"You will see him again when this is over Cloud, don't worry" she said smiling a little.

"He's dead" I announced with a lowered voice.

"…I am sorry, I-" she started with an sad expression on her face.

"It's alright… you didn't know Lightning…"

"… how did it happen if you don't mind me asking?"

"…"

"Nevermind, it's alright, I don't want to know." she said as we walked around a corner.

"Maybe some other day, Lightning." I answered calm.

"Don't worry… it's alright. Sorry for so many questions."

'_I don't mind, I enjoy listening to your voice~'_

"It's alright." I said slowly with a still lowered head.

"There it is… but…?" she suddenly announced pointing to a building which was 20 meters in front of us surrounded by a crowd of people. "… why are there so many people?"

"Let's have a look" I said calm after lifting my head and fastening my pace just like she did.


	12. Etro's Fusion Sword

**C.12: Etro's Fusion Sword**

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><p>A few seconds later we reached the crowd of people and realized there were standing still at the same spot and not making any noise. But why were they standing there for doing absolutely nothing? Why in front of the shop?<p>

"What's going on here?" Lightning asked into the crowd. No one did answer her but we noticed that all of them were turning their heads towards us very slowly with an awkward look, it must have been dozens of people standing just there doing absolutely nothing. I faced Lightning and shrugged slightly.

"We should be going in… something's wrong here." She nodded once and made her way through the crowd to reach the door of the shop, I was walking right behind her. The people didn't give us much space to walk through them and were hustling and pushing us so I touched her here and there slightly unintended. The strange part about this was that no one was standing in the shop, only in front of it as if they wanted us to not be able to get in there.

"Lightning… what's wrong with them? They seem to be so…absent" I said quietly to her the time we were in the small shop while I turned around to give them a look.

'_Something is really odd here, they look like they have no purpose anymore… like they are half sleeping, I don't know, I haven't seen this before. If I couldn't tell better I would say they are somewhat zombielike.'_

"I don't know, Cloud…" She said looking at them before facing me. "But I know that something is wrong." she finished her sentence and made her way through the shop.

"Where is the shopkeeper? Snow has been here earlier… why he didn't tell us about this?" I asked her confused.

"Maybe because this wasn't happening at that time around…" she answered being unsure while searching for the shopkeeper.

"Might be, so this situation seems to be new, something or someone must have caused it just a few minutes or hours ago." I said the time I walked around the counter as my eyes widened.

"Lightning!" I called for her even though she was only a few feet away searching at some other point of the shop. She was rushing towards me and I saw that her eyes have widened also.

"That's the shopkeeper!" she said the time she walked towards the old man which was lying on the ground behind the counter. He was insanely injured, blood was flowing out of his mouth and a deep cut of a sword branded his front torso, all the way down from the right shoulder to the left side of his belly. "What happened?" she asked the time she was kneeing down to him and resting her fingertips on his throat to check if he was still alive. "He still got pulse but he seems to be done soon!" she said looking at me.

"Why… haven't they called the ambulance?" I said looking at the crowd outside which were still looking inside with their weird look before I turned my face back to the old man and walked next to Lightning. It's weird but the man seemed to be smiling slightly all out of sudden.

"You…" he started talking slowly.

"Be quiet old man, you don't have much energy left!" Lightning announced towards him but without success, he continued talking.

"…are Strife, … Cloud Strife" he finished coughing blood between words. The name made my eyes go wide.

_'Where does he know my name from!'_

"Yes, I am." I said kneeing down too now facing him and taking his words serious. Someone must have told him who I am. Lightning looked at me kind of shocked due to the situation. She, just like me, didn't know what was going on.

"Cloud Strife" he repeated smiling a bit wider now. I just simply gave him a slow nod. "I've been waiting for you, Cloud."

"What do you mean? Who are you? Where do you know my name from?" I felt like I have a thousand questions to ask him but I knew already he wouldn't have the time to answer all of them to me, he wouldn't survive this, his wounds were too big. He lost a lot of blood already; in fact, _he should have been dead by now_.

"You are…" he started again but he got cut off as he was coughing some more blood. Lightning and I have been looking at him again, our facial expressions relaxed a bit, we couldn't help this situation, it was odd.

"You are… the chosen one" he finished the sentence he started a few seconds earlier. Lightning's head was turning towards me in only a second, she was staring at me.

"What is he talking about?" she asked me.

"I… I don't know" I answered her confused of the talking.

'_The chosen one? … chosen one? I heard that somewhere from someone. But from who…?'_ I thought but couldn't get it.

"She…" he started again the time we were turning our heads back to him. "She said I have to give you something."

"She?" I and Lightning asked simultaneously looking at each other.

"The big safe behind you…" I turned around the time he was coughing again. I haven't notice the safe before; it was perfectly attached to the wall of the shop. All you could see was the little field of numbers where you have to type in the correct password to make it unlock.

"… it's yours."

"Mine?"

"She left it here… so… I could give it to… you, Cloud"

"Who is she?"

"All you have to do… is… type in the password"

"What is the password?" Lightning asked him.

"Take it" he said as I stood up still looking at him, waiting for the password. He gave me a nod, I didn't know what he wanted to tell me with that but I made my way up to the safe, hoping he would give me the code for it the time I was standing in front of it. Lightning was still kneeing down next to him, obviously confused just like me.

"One" he said but it took him a while to continue as he starting coughing again. This was giving me the chance to type in all the numbers right after he said it.

"Four" I typed it in as he coughed.

"Nine" same as before, it seems like he was coughing much more now.

"Seven" I typed the number in again waiting for the next one.

"Two, Four, Seven…" I typed it in again as he started coughing.

"…teen" he finished as I simply stared at the field of numbers.

_'What the…? Is he serious? Why is he saying that? How am I supposed to put the 1 from the 17 in front of the already typed in 7! Why didn't he just simply stay with 1 and 7… for real, why?'_ I thought to myself with an annoyed expression on my face. I typed the clear button and went through all the numbers again which I luckily remembered.

'_One – Four – Nine – Seven – Two – Four – One – Seven'_ were the numbers I remembered and they were right, the safe was giving a noise and the door was pushing itself open slightly. I looked back at Lightning who was looking at me and giving me a nod. I opened the door of the safe and saw that a sword was lying in there next to a letter. I took the letter first and opened it to read it loudly enough for Lightning to hear it.

"Dear Cloud,

Take this sword with you on your way through Gran Pulse. It may seem familiar to you and that's right, it is. This sword will lead you through the darkness which has overcome the planet and will be more help to you in near and far future than you can imagine just now. Take good care of it and it might grant you a wish someday."

"From who is it?" Lightning asked curious.

"There… is no name" I said looking at her.

"I see… take the sword out then" she continued as I gave her a slow nod before turning back to the safe. I reached with my fingers into the safe to grab the holder of the sword to finally pull it out. It looked exactly like the Fusion Sword with which I have been fighting against Sephiroth last year, though it also looked somewhat different. The blades weren't silver anymore but black. The holder was looking the same just the color changed too; instead of red it got some metallic blue touch now. You could also see that there was a _hole_ in the blade, as if you could put something into it…The biggest difference, however, was that there was something engraved on the big blade.

'Goddess of Etro' were the words which were shining bright in metallic blue. _'Who is Etro?'_ I then thought to myself. I looked back at Lightning who was strangely looking at me; I guess she didn't expect me to be a fighter with _such_ a big sword. I smiled slightly and put the sword on my back before walking towards the old man again. _'Thanks, whoever you are'_.

"Who gave you this sword, old man?" I asked calm kneeing down again next to Lightning who was still staring at me.

"Co..." he starting coughing the time Lightning was standing up.

"Co..." I saw that he was getting weaker and weaker, still I wanted to know.

"Cos…" my eyes widened up. He didn't finish the name, I did.

"…mos" I remembered the name. The old man gave me another small smile before his eyes were closing. A few seconds later I put my fingertips on the vein of his throat to realize that he faded away. "Rest in Peace, old man."

"Cloud?" Lightning suddenly called out. I just turned my face towards her and saw that her eyes were widened slightly, something must have happened. "We have a problem."

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><p><strong>Answers to reviewers:<strong>

**yunadance6:** Thank you :) makes me happy to see that you enjoyed!

**i:** Yeah, got rid of the sickness now lol, more or less though. Yeah... Zack is and was amazing, I cried at the ending of Crsis Core lol, embarrassing! I loved his character too, he, Cloud and Tifa are my favourites from FF7! Well, yeah... Caius is a caring person but he is overstraining it... he ONLY cares for Yeul and nobody else, like really, nobody. A good villain, yeah... but not as good as Sin and Sephiroth in my opinion :).

**jizang:** Thanks, well I don't know... spiritual maybe, yeah... but not as a person as he died already, sadly... I would love to bring him back to life but I don't see a way to do so lol. At least not a way which would make any sense.

**Glitchly:** Thank you for your reviews ^_^, I will keep updating :D


	13. Not interested

**C.13: Not interested**

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><p>"Cloud?" Lightning suddenly called out. I just turned my face towards her and saw that her eyes were widened slightly, something must have happened. "We have a problem."<p>

"What is it, Lightning?" I said turning my head towards her.

"Hmph".. she sighed grabbing my hair to pull me up with it to my feet.

"Hey!" I cried out. "What was that for?" she then rested her hand on my cheek to turn my face towards the entrance of the shop while I scratched my head.

"Look." she simply announced with a rough tone in her voice.

Looking towards the door I saw some other kind of Cie'th. I guessed they were Cie'th as they looked familiar to the ones we have been fighting earlier… these ones are just more human like.

"What are those?" I asked for confirmation while still looking at the windows.

"Ghoul's." she announced.

"Cie'th?"

"Mhm." she mumbled while nodding slightly.

While looking out of the window I noticed more and more Ghoul's walking around on the street of the city of New Bodhum. Some of them were walking aimless around; some others were trying to get near us. In fact, there were too many around, way too many.

"Too many of them." I clarified to her turning my face towards her.

"I think so…" she said looking down.

"Is something wrong?"

"I wonder what happened to them… why did the people get turned into Cie'th? Who did this to them?" she whispered quietly. I noticed she was clenching her fists, she was angry.

"I don't know Lightning, but I do know that they won't let us stand her forever."

"We need to find out." she suddenly said as her head shot up towards the windows. The ghoul's been trying to get in and smashed the windows already. Some of them were actually smart enough to find the way through the door and were tramping slowly towards us.

"We should be going." I announced tightening the grip on my new sword in my right hand. She gave me a slight nod. "Do they have any disadvantages?"

"They are weak and slow." she stated.

"I can work with that" I replied lifting my sword slightly getting ready to get into my fighting stance until I noticed that she was resting her hand on my sword and pushed it down towards the floor.

"What is it?" I asked confused looking at her.

"No… there is no use in fighting them, there are too many… moreover, maybe we would be able to heal them somehow. If you kill them now, they will be gone forever. Remember that. Though… I know, sometimes we don't have a choice, but here Cloud, here we have." she stated looking back at me. She didn't even bother to grab her blade.

"Alright." I announced with a calm tone in my voice. After that I put my sword onto my back and got ready for the escape of the town. I turned my head once more to the old man who gave me the sword and knew surprisingly some stuff about me. I was thanking him in my thoughts once again before turning my head back at Lighting with a smirk on my lips. All she did was to give me a confused look.

"What… are you planning?" she asked while raising an eyebrow.

"Escaping." I simply said before grabbing her hand with my left hand and walking slowly towards the entrance door.

"How you want to get past those which are standing here directly in our way?" she asked while having no other choice but to follow me. I didn't reply to her and got my right hand ready for another Lightning strike, she continued the talk the time she noticed that my right hand started glowing blue. "Cloud! Remember what I just told you!"

"You said you don't want me to kill them, you didn't say you don't want me to knock them out." I announced letting the right palm of my hand face the ground. "And that's exactly what I am going to do, right now." I said looking at her.

"How do y-" she started to ask as I interrupted her.

"Don't ask anything, just jump the time I tell you to do so." I replied. After a few more seconds of waiting I knew that it's time to get the job done here. A sudden blast of Lightning shot out of my hand towards the ground; right before it hit the ground I gave Lightning the sign to jump. "Jump!" I announced as both of us were jumping up and looking down to the lightning I just released which was working its way through the ground like a swirl growing bigger and bigger. The time we landed on our feet the swirl around us still was growing bigger and knocking every Ghoul down of its feet in the moment they made contact to it.

"Show-off…" she said quietly smirking a little.

"Thanks for the compliment." I announced smiling slightly with a calm voice. "Now or never, Light" I continued as I tightened the grab on her hand to dash out of the shop pulling her with me. Looking to the left and right made me realize that everything has changed here… Ghoul's were ruling the city now.

'_They are everywhere… simply everywhere; this city looked so good and was so vibrant the time we came in here, and now…?'_ I thought looking to the right and left of me while I was still dashing out of the city with her right behind me. _'On the balconies… on the terraces… in the flats… it seems like no one was able to survive this…'_ I continued my thoughts as my eyes grew widened slightly _'…beside us two. Only the two of us survived. Who did all this to the citizens? Who is doing all this to us? What is the plan of that person?'_ I thought while turning my head back towards Lightning who was still running but looking aside as if she was caught in thoughts too. _'We need to get to her home as soon as possible; I hope Snow and Serah are fine… I really do hope so.'_ I turned my head back to look forward and noticed we were about to leave the city. _'The Ghoul's seem to be caught in the city… it looks like they can't leave this certain area. This doesn't make any sense. If the person who turned them into Cie'th really wants to see us dead, then he should be trying everything to see us dead. But he isn't. He is making them stay in here… and left us two alive, for some reason…'_ I shook my head to that thought _'…or maybe there isn't even a reason and he simply failed on turning us into Cie'th the way he wanted to.'_ I noticed that we were out of the city but I didn't stop running yet until we would be reaching the beach which was in front of us. It won't take much longer until we would be there.

"Cloud!" Lightning suddenly said.

"Hm?" I mumbled not looking at her.

"Let's… stop at the beach, they aren't running after us!" she announced.

"That's what I was about to do" I said quietly smiling slightly as she got the same idea as me. The time we reached the beach we stopped running and were looking back at the city. "How come they aren't hunting us?" I asked curious.

"I don't know… but let's say for now that it's a good thing that they don't." she replied looking at me.

"You might be right… I am just wondering that's all" I said looking back at her noticing she was kind of breathless.

"Why aren't you breathless after such a long sprint, Cloud?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"I told you… that some things aren't normal with me, didn't I?" I replied with a calm voice as Lightning gave me a simply nod not asking further questions. Saying that I noticed that there were normal humans walking around on the beach, seems like only the city was affected from this misery and the people on the beach didn't even realize it. Serah and Snow should be fine. There were some seconds of silence between us before Lightning started to talk again.

"Cloud?" she said as I looked at her.

"Light?" I asked back as I raised one of my eyebrows now.

"We are safe for now" she simply stated. I didn't get what she was talking about so I had no choice but to give her a confused facial expression.

"I know, but why are you stating it?" I asked confused.

"Well…" she then started looking aside, as if she was embarrassed.

"Ha?" I mumbled even more confused now. A few seconds later I looked down to my hand and noticed that I was grabbing her hand still very tight. My heart suddenly skipped a beat and released her hand as blood shot into my cheeks turning them deep red. She massaged the hand which I just released from my grip with her other hand… maybe it has been somewhat too tight for her. "I… I… uhm… you know,… I…" I started as I noticed that she was walking ahead as I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment. She decided to stand still a few meters in front of me turning her head around to face me.

"Not the proper way to touch a Lady…" she started with a smirk on her face. I knew she was being ironic. "… but thank you anyways, I think if you wouldn't have pulled me out of there I would have had to fight them…."

"… No problem, Light" I answered still slightly embarrassed but looking at her.

"… but as I didn't have to it's the time for you to show me what you got, Cloud" she continued as she suddenly pulled out her gunblade firing some shots at me. I immediately pulled my sword to block the shot's with the blade.

"What are you doing? This is not a game, Light!" I announced annoyed. I didn't know what she was up to.

"I am only testing you, I want a strong man on my side… during the journey" she said as she changed her gunblade to a blade and ran towards me. I let the pike of my sword rest in the sand until she was really close to me. "Come on Cloud, don't be afraid!" she then said as she started to run slightly slower. She must have noticed that I am not interested in her test. The time she was in front of me I swung my sword sideways against her blade making her lose the grip of it and let her blade fly through the air landing with the peak in the sand of the beach.

"I am…" I started as I slammed my sword into the sand, grabbing the wrist of her left hand afterwards to pull her towards me with some force to make our foreheads clash together. Her eyes, which were like 2 centimeters apart from mine now, widened and allowed me to look deep into them causing her to blush slightly "…not interested".

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><p><strong>i:<strong> Well you will see what it will be good for sooner or later :D Everything has a reason, lol. At the moment I am not too sure about the Eidolons... I might bring them into this story, but maybe not. I will see... really really unsure, I will see how it fits into this story! For now I think they are better off alone, I will have a look on that xD. Hope you enjoyed it :).

**yunadance6:** Thanks as always :D

**Glitchly:** Well, no butt kicks in this chapter xDDD... sorry :( xD, hope you still liked it!

**Please fellas let me know what you think of this story, I am not afraid of reviews, don't worry lol. First of all I only want to share my ideas and thoughts about this couple so yeah~...**

**See you soon :-)**


	14. There you go again

**C.14: There you go again…**

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><p>We kept staring into each other eyes for a few more moments. I noticed her pupils were moving slightly from one side to the other while looking at my eyes, maybe she was thinking about something? I let go of her wrist and took my hand down, she actually did the same but we were still keeping the position. She then started to back off slowly. I noticed that she was blushing from my actions and the time I realized what I have been doing blood shot into my cheeks turning them red too. A few centimeters were separating us now as she decided to face away and look to the side, most likely she felt embarrassed. I kept the position, it didn't matter how I would act now… she must have seen already that… I didn't feel comfortable now even though I was the one who brought us into that awkward situation.<p>

"I'm sorry." I whispered slowly looking at her; she was still facing away, her left hand rested on her left hip. As I noticed that she wouldn't give me an answer or any other kind of reaction I continued. "Are you… mad?" I said tilting my head slightly. She then looked at me from the corner eye and gave out a soft sigh.

"No Cloud, just no." Her head was turning a bit towards me. "I am the one who should say sorry… stupid idea, my fault. I just wanted to make sure that you are able to fight with your new weapon. That's it." I didn't answer her and pulled my sword out of the sand to put it back onto my back, my facial expression said nothing. I made my way to her blade while she kept standing at the same place as before; I pulled it out of the sand and went back towards her.

"Here." I announced handing her the blade.

"Thanks." she said taking it and putting it back into her holder.

"We should be going… Serah and Snow must be waiting for us. We got some stuff to tell them, don't you think?" I said coldly as I started walking to leave her behind.

"Cloud?" she suddenly said quietly which made me stop moving and stand still.

"You said something, Light?" I said calm.

"…"

"Light?" I repeated after I turned my head towards her with a sigh to check if everything is alright.

'_I can't be mad at her, I can't!'_

"No, never mind." she then answered while shaking her head and giving me a slight smile afterwards. I couldn't help but smile back slightly before turning my head back and continue walking towards the house.

~. Lightning POV

The time he turned around again to walk towards my home I faced the sea and was left in thoughts for a while.

'_You are an idiot, Light!'_ I thought to myself and slapped my forehead with my hand afterwards_. 'What is wrong with you? You are acting like a little child, where are my manners at the moment? I am not myself; I am not, not around him. This dude makes me crazy, but why?'_ I continued as I looked at my blade which was in its holder. _'I used to be different, to just anyone… but to him? I act like a fifteen years old, this is annoying and embarrassing.'_ I turned my head towards him and watched him walk all alone. _'He seems to be a lone wolf even though he told me that he had friends around him on his journey… it's somewhat hard to believe.'_ I sighed softly. _'What are you doing to me, Cloud? You better not hurt me.'_

"Are you coming?" he suddenly said lifting his hand but not turning around to have a look at me. I slightly shrugged in annoyance even though I am not sure what annoyed me, maybe it was just him changing me.

"I am." I answered loud enough for him to hear me as I closed the gap between us.

~. Cloud POV

"Cloud?" I heard her suddenly call my name while she was catching up. I kept walking slowly. "You do know that we have to discuss some things, right?" she announced before finally walking next to me. I gave her a nod.

"We have time, first we have to check on your sister… and then it's time for us to go though I don't know where…but you see, we got plenty of time to talk." I said smiling a little not looking at her.

Some more minutes passed before we finally reached her house again. We were standing in front of the door as I waited for Lightning to unlock it so that we could finally go in.

"I bet he's doing nothing again…" I heard her whispering annoyed. She made me look a bit confused at her though I tried not to bother with her businesses. "Let's go inside." she said after unlocking the door and pushing it open slightly. She went in first; I was right behind her and closed the door behind us. The kitchen to the left of us was kind of dark therefore they couldn't have been there. I turned my head to the right and noticed someone had to be in the living room as noises came out of there, maybe it was the TV. Lightning went ahead and I followed her until we saw Serah on the couch watching some kind of TV show. "Serah." Lightning simply said standing still.

"You are back? That was fast!" she stated after turning her head towards us smiling wide.

"There is no reason to be happy." Lightning responded coldly.

"What do you mean?" Serah asked raising an eyebrow. Her smile faded away.

"They are back."

"They?" she said looking even more confused now.

"They are really back, the Cie'th" I noticed Lightning was clenching her fists. I was still standing next to her but refused to say anything.

"How do you know?"

"Every single living person in the city centre turned a Ghoul, they are all Cie'th now, all of them."

"This… this can't be!" Serah replied shocked.

"Where is your useless fiancé?" Lightning asked and switched the topic; the tone in her voice went to be annoyed again.

"He… he's taking a nap."

"Of course, why did I even bother to ask you." Lightning answered rolling her eyes and turned around to leave the room. I was watching her leaving and turned my head towards Serah confused.

"Where is she going?" I asked her.

"You… you will see…" she said resting her chin on her palm looking… I don't know, I would say she was looking with puppy eyes at me.

… A few moments later I heard that the door upstairs was closed with a noticeable bang making me look up at the ceiling before turning my head back to Serah.

"What just happened?"

"You did notice they like each other, right?" she answered with a small shrug and an ironic tone in her voice still sitting in the same position.

"How could I not have noticed that by now…" I answered before turning my head back to the entrance to the living room; Lightning was coming around the corner with crossed arms. She walked up next to me and stood still without saying a word. Some seconds later I heard a male voice; it must have been Snow which was now coming downstairs.

"You are a freaking fury!" he bitched around before walking into the living room. The time he reached the room I looked at him as he looked at me. "Oh… our guest is here too, hi Cloud." he said rubbing the top of his head before glaring at Lightning. I looked at Serah for a second who was shrugging at me again with a small smile.

"Sit down, ape." Lightning suddenly announced looking at him.

"…" he didn't say anything and went to the couch to sit down next to Serah.

"Listen Snow, the Cie'th are everywhere in this city, you should take more care of Serah."

"Everywhere?" he asked confused.

"They are in the city centre already – all around there, I want you to take care of her!" she answered while the tone of her voice was rising.

"Why won't you do it?" he asked calm.

"Why won't you do it…" Lightning repeated his words in a whisper clearly annoyed. "Maybe because I am not the one who is going to get married to my sister and will promise to take care of her for the rest of my life, you remember that you are her fiancé, don't you?" she stated while walking in front of him.

'…' I didn't know what to think of this, they loved to bash each other.

"You are right." Snow simply said.

"Good." Lightning replied. "I and Cloud, we have to take care of some businesses."

"What do you mean?"

"We are L'Cie's, we have to do something about it. We will take care of this problem… we will find the origin of the L'Cie and destroy it… and if we have to, we will save Cocoon and Gran Pulse once again."

"I want to help, I am in!" Snow announced while standing up clenching his fists like a hero. A few seconds later he was sitting in the sofa again, though he didn't sit down voluntary. Lightning's fist flew right into his face making him fall back into it again.

"Lightning!" Serah suddenly cried out, she didn't like her actions.

"You take care of Serah!" Lightning yelled at him "I won't be around and I trust you on that! Are you able to do this simple favor for me?" she continued not looking at her sister but at him.

"…" Snow didn't answer but it must have been an 'ok' as Lightning looked satisfied.

"We will be back… sooner or later. You two better be alright then." Lightning said while walking towards me and giving me a slight nod, but stopped walking the time she stood next to me. "Please Snow, please." she finally said, looking down to the ground as if she was saddened by something.

"I will Lightning, I promise." He answered calm looking at her back as Serah hugged him on the couch. A small smile grew onto Lightnings lips. "Come home save sis, … and you too, Cloud." he continued. Lightnings smile did disappear at that moment.

'_There you go again…'_ I thought looking first at him and then back to Light.

"Don't call me sister you sloth." Lightning answered annoyed while grabbing my hand pulling me towards the door with her. I blushed on her touch, her hand felt so tender...

"Take care Lightning!" Serah said suddenly hugging her from behind which made her lose the grip of my hand. I sighed internal as I looked at her. Lightning was touching the hands of her sister and smiled.

"I will." she replied as Serah broke the hug. Lightning opened the door and pulled me with her. She closed the door behind us and stood next to me afterwards looking at my face as I looked back at hers. "It's time, Cloud. We have to go." I confirmed her words with a slight nod.

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><p><strong>As you might have noticed, this update took a bit longer. I am busy in life at the moment so my updates won't come as fast as they usually did but don't worry, they will come :)<strong>

**Answers to my reviewers:**

**Glichly:** Yeah, you still have to wait... but not that long anymore xD

**yunadance6:** Happy to see that you are still enjoying :D

**ken:** Well, he wasn't interested in fightning her so he simply disarmed her, it was over before it even started xDDD

**i:** I think so, lol. You are used to me cutting at those parts already... I am doing it on purpose anyways xD. Thanks for the praise :3

**Ryu**: Thanks! :) Well I am trying my best to not make their characters completely off. I have to change some stuff here and there in their characteristics as I wouldn't get them closer to each other if I wouldn't do that but yeah... I don't like this 'Emo' only and 'maniac' only behavior... Really really happy you are enjoying it so far!


	15. Have a nice walk

**Author's note:**

**Holy OMG! I am updating!  
><strong>

**Well, I am really sorry that it took me so freakin long to update this story. I have been really really busy the past months with the university, but I can happily say now that I am finished with it and graduated finally to a lawyer :). Anyways.. I hope there are still some people who are reading this story! Plus.. you know, I already have the whole story (at least the most of it) summed up, I only need to make the chapters and such out of it... therefor I hope that I will be able to do it soon. I should be updating regulary again as I am about to become a university student again, meaning, I will have more time lol.  
>Anyways guys, I am really sorry.. still I hope you will enjoy and give me some thoughts about it. Have a great weekend!<br>**

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><p><strong>C.15: Have a nice walk!<strong>

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><p>She closed the door behind us and stood next to me afterwards looking at my face. I looked back at hers. "It's time, Cloud." I confirmed her words with a slight nod and put my hands into my trouser pockets staying silent for a moment just only to ease my mind a bit.<p>

"He will take care of her, don't worry. I don't know him, but he loves her… he would do anything for your sister, Lightning. That's what love is about, isn't it?" I said not looking at her but up to the sky while shrugging slightly. Maybe I really were wrong with that statement, ... All I wanted to do was to give her some support… make her believe that we can actually do it and everything will be back to normal again, the way they used to have it here on Grand Pulse.

"I think so…" Lightning slowly responded as if she was unsure herself. "They better do what I said, I don't want them to follow us as they would cause some more problems around us; moreover they would be irritating. We need to focus." I didn't reply.

"So…" I started, still in the same stance as before "… where do we actually need to head to?"

"To the Sunleth Waterscape I guess… it's the place which is the closest to the Crystal which is holding Cocoon up in the sky." she said being unsure. Of course she was… we didn't have any information, we didn't even know whom we would be fighting against. Some more Cie'th? Who is behind all this?

"What is that place like…?" Not that it matters, I was just only curious.

"You can call it a forest if you want to."

"And how do we get there?" I asked her now looking at her. She lifted her hand and pointed at a place behind me with her right forefinger.

"We have to go through the Bresha Ruins first which should be right behind the mountain pass of New Bodhum, I am not positive about that as I haven't ever been there but that's what people told me" she stated as her hand went down again resting on her hip. "We should be going, now." she continued and started walking towards the mountains behind me. I turned around and noticed a small gap in between of the mountains, where she was heading towards to. I stopped thinking about it as soon as I saw that Lightning was already a few steps ahead – making me want to follow her.

'_Here you go again… another adventure starts for me yet it has the same purpose… My friends aren't around meaning it will be all different this time.'_ I closed my eyes for a few seconds and opened them afterwards to stare at Lightning _'… but this time I am understanding from the beginning that I am not alone, I have someone next to me… someone I can hopefully rely on.'_ I sighed. _'That's what you always wanted, isn't it? Do things together… accomplish things together… making me understand that I have never been alone. I think I understand now, finally… Tifa.'_

I started walking and caught up to her pretty quickly. We reached the gap in the mountain already and were making our way through a small pass which didn't seem to be special at all. It was just… a long very narrow pass...

"Cloud?" she suddenly started as we were still making our way through the gap slowly. I didn't reply to her, I simply waited for whatever she had to say or ask. "What did you mean with those words exactly?" she asked while walking in front of me and not turning around to face me.

"What do you mean?" I asked confused while following her.  
>"Well… you said that you aren't, how should I say… normal anymore." I stopped walking at that point and looked down to the ground before closing my eyes. "…Cloud?" she continued a few seconds of quietness before turning around as I didn't respond back to her.<p>

"There is nothing much to say for now, believe me. I might tell you the time I feel like it and the time I see a need in doing so… but at the moment…" I looked back up and opened my eyes to stare at her "… there is no need for that. We have different problems" I continued calm.

"Your eyes… they are growing stronger now than before. Why are they glowing anyways?" she continued asking while tilting her head slightly.

"..."

"Oh… never mind" she turned around again and conitnued walking.

"Why did you name yourself Lightning then? I feel like I told you a lot about me… but you didn't give me much in return anyways."

"I don't feel like talking about it." she answered and finished that topic immediately.

"I see… then let me ask… how old are you?" I only asked that as I didn't know anything else to ask, it was a random question.

"Beginning of the twenty's, you?"

"Same." I said shrugging to myself. She didn't want to tell me anything about her, just nothing. "You don't trust me, do you?" I asked without thinking, this question came out of my mouth without me even wanting to ask it. She was the one who stopped to walk this time.

"What do you mean with that?" she didn't turn around. Her voice sounded different. Somewhat annoyed, but at the same time hurt.

"I… uhm…. You don't want to share much about yourself, that's why I am asking" I said while scratching my head.

"No. It's just that I am not used to all this, understand?" she went on before starting to walk again.

"I think I do, I know how you feel like..." I replied while starting to walk behind her again.

"What?" she said with a curious tone in her voice.

"Never mind…."

'_She doesn't know how much I am like her, she doesn't understand it at all… she wants to be all by herself, doesn't want to rely on anyone, want to accomplish things on her own… at least that it is what it looks like… and I? Well, I have been all like that that time… I lost so much already… still I want to know more about her… I guess we have a lot of parallels in our lives, huh?'_ I thought as something blew into my mind and I dashed towards her to walk next to her.

"Hey…" I started the time I was walking next to her and rested my hand on her shoulder to make her stop walking and turn to face me. She looked at me somewhat wondering what was going on. "…what's the real reason for you attacking me earlier, Light." I finished the sentence looking at her.

"There is no real reason." she stated calm.

"What do you mean with that?"

"There is nothing else to say besides what I told you already, earlier." she responded while pushing my hand from her shoulder slowly and turning around again to continue walking towards the ruins.

"So… you shot at me only because you wanted to test me?" I asked looking after her.

"Yes, but you know… I am sorry, I told you already."

"What if you would have hit me with your shots?" I started to follow her again.

"Then you wouldn't have been such a big help for me anyways, Cloud." she answered coldly, but I did notice that she was clenching her fists. Something is troubling her mind… though I didn't ask for it. Either she will tell me voluntary or she won't, after all it is not my problem. "… but luckily you didn't get hit."

"Why luckily?" I didn't expect her to continue her phrase.

"Let's face it Cloud, I can't do all this by myself… and now as I am an L'Cie again I can't trust anyone and I can't rely on anyone… people might run away as they are afraid, hell… they don't even know what is going on as the Fal'Cie should be dead. They should, but they aren't; for whatever reason."

"I am here, you can trust me." I said while putting my hands into my trouser pockets and looking aside a bit as I felt embarrassed for saying such a thing.

"We're almost there." Lightning said switching the topic; I didn't get a response from her.

"Good." I answered more focused again now. "… but, do you know how we are supposed to find the Fal'Cie?"

"I have no idea."

"Great…"

"We just going to hope that we will run into it while walking towards crystal column which holds Cocoon up. It must be somewhere." as soon as she finished with her sentence I noticed a tall old building was emerging out of the ground in front of us. It was broken here and there and had some cracks all around but was still in good condition for its age.

"The ruins?" I asked suddenly, this time not responding her.

"No, the entrance to them. Behind the gate of this tower will be the ruins of bresha. A couple of years ago this whole place was frozen and completely snowed in, now it's a dead place." she explained before standing still right in front of the gate of the tower. I walked next to her, stood still and looked up at that ridiculously high tower noticing that the sun was about to go down before looking at her. "Are you ready? If we pass this gate we will be starting our journey Cloud, if you want to back off then do it now."

"Do I have a choice?" I asked while shrugging.

"No." she smiled slightly at me. I returned the favor before we turned our heads to face the gate.


	16. Awareness

**C.16: Awareness**

* * *

><p>We entered the gate and went down a long narrowed passage into the ruins of Bresha. The passage leaded to a wide open area which, in fact, looked dead like Lightning told me before. I expected this area to be something like a cave, I was wrong with that guess as it was outdoors. After some minutes of walking straight behind her she suddenly stopped walking and stood still.<p>

"It actually looks worse than I expected it to be." she announced, me still standing behind her.

"What was this place like a few years ago? You said it was frozen?"

"Yeah…. It was a famous lake once… but the time has changed it to what it is now…"

"Hm" I answered shrugging. "We should take a rest fairly soon, the sun is going down you know, we won't achieve anything anyways then"

"I know" she answered cold, still not giving me a look.

I walked forward a few steps to reach her and came to a stand next to her to start talking suddenly.

"Why did we survive the incident in the city?" I questioned clueless.

"I don't know… guess someone wanted us to survive it… there really isn't any other explanation, I think?" she answered, as she was shrugging this time.

"Who?"

"You are asking too many questions, I can't answer them myself Cloud, otherwise I would have told you already as we are together in this mess, you forgot?" she announced slightly annoyed.

"Do you think that someone… wants us to be alive?" I asked looking at her.

"Cloud…", I felt that she got even more annoyed.

"Alright, alright… forget it…" I answered as I started moving forward.

A few meters ahead I noticed that she didn't start walking yet for whatever reason, she didn't follow me but simply kept standing.

"Cloud?" she suddenly asked for me with a low voice. I slowly turned around and noticed that she has been thinking about something.  
>"What is it, Light?" I made 2 steps towards her as she slowly lowered her head to face the ground.<p>

"I'm really –" she started talking but wasn't able to finish her sentence as we heard a loud growl combined with steps of something which made the ground feel like shaking and breaking. She instantly lifted her head and was looking around, so did I.

"What was that?" I asked her somewhat worried about the situation as another growl appeared. "It seems to get closer to our position. Lightning! Do you have an idea what this could be?!" I asked her again raising my voice slightly. She only shook her head not knowing what is about to come to us soon. As I was still looking at her I continued talking "We need to get away from her, the loudness of this voice doesn't sound like something good, come!" as I was reaching my hand out to her to make her walk towards me. At the same time I saw that her eyes starting shaking and staring at me… or behind me. " ..?" I mentioned her name very slowly, knowing we might be in trouble. Her eyes went serious looking and before I was even able to turn around to check what was behind me, she already dashed towards me to grab my hand and did slide with me under some kind of tunnel. As we came back to our feet I noticed it wasn't a tunnel, but the legs of the…

"…A Behemoth" she said not giving me a look after getting me out of the situation. You shouldn't be sleeping in this kind of situation!" she continued with a more annoyed voice.

"Hey... you have been the one who was sleeping and didn't follow me!" I answered somewhat annoyed as well turning myself towards her.

"Whatever" she answered looking away.

"Yeah, whatever" I answered doing the same while crossing my arms. "Hmph."

"He is mine anyways" she suddenly announced before I looked back at her. The Behemoth turned around and was facing us again meanwhile, not looking all too happy.

"Do whatever you want…" I said sitting down cross-legged while looking at the Behemoth.

"What are you doing?!" she then questioned wondering.

"Exactly what you wanted me to do, isn't it?"

"You are annoying sometimes, Cloud. Shut up and watch." she answered with a slight smirk on her face while dashing towards the Behemoth, me having one as well.

Before she was able to hit the Behemoth he suddenly wiped his arm and hit her hard, making her fall to the ground and stand up right away. The Behemoth gave out another growl.

"Light!" I announced about to stand up.

"I told you to shut up, didn't I?" she said looking towards me, smirking again.

"Hm… you get one last chance" I announced sitting down calmly again watching her transform her blade into a gun. She was shooting the Behemoth a few times from the distance and was able to actually hit one of his eyes fatally; the Behemoth growled in pain and was rushing towards her this time. The time he was close to her, Lightning jumped up to avoid the attack, not expecting the enemy to fish her out of the air with its tail, slamming her to the ground yet again. I waited for her reaction, but nothing happened at all.

"Why… why isn't she standing up already?" I asked myself after a few short seconds. I expected her to stand up again as she went into this fight with so much confidence as if she had won a lot of them already, but… she didn't move. The Behemoth meanwhile was turning around and started running towards her again. "Why.. Lightning…" I continued my thought… "STAND UP ALREADY!" I shouted out, not getting any reaction. A few seconds afterwards I noticed a small rock behind her, she must have lost consciousness or something. "This isn't good" I said to myself, knowing the Behemoth is about to run her over. "I won't make it... I won't make it…" I continued my thought as I noticed that she started moving again. "LIGHTNING!" I shouted out again. She simply turned her head slowly towards me, but wasn't able to do something either in such a short amount of time.

"Help…" she suddenly announced while reaching with one of her hands for me. My eyes went wide, my blood pressure raised, the worriedness in my face faded and I simply nodded once.

~.Lightning POV

"Help…" I said to him once.

"He didn't start moving at all… though his expression has changed" I thought. "I am… not able to move just yet, somehow it got me really hard, I underestimated it and overestimated myself here… what an idiot I am…" I continued my thoughts while I slowly turned my head towards the enemy, noticing it was already there, only a few feet were between us. "So... this is it? I die because of something that stupid?" I finished my thought, closed my eyes and noticed myself getting a wet face. "Am I… crying?" I asked myself as the ground started shaking. I opened my eyes again and noticed that the enemy was down, lying there right in front of me. Cloud was on top of his head and nailed it with his sword to the ground. I wiped my face so that he won't notice that I was crying, but as soon as I checked my hands I noticed that it has been blood which spread all over the place. I looked back up at him, he wasn't facing me, I could only see his back, though I noticed that his hands were glowing blue again… as if his aura was coming out. I started smiling slightly. "He is…" I started thinking while blushing a little before he turned around with an extremely mad expression in his face. I haven't seen it before.

~.Cloud POV

"Bastard" I thought to myself, "It almost got her". I turned around noticing the way she was looking at me is different than before. I loosed my madness against the enemy and chilled down "this was… way too close" I continued my thoughts.

"Are you… alright?" I asked her worried, she kept looking at me. "Light?" I asked her again wondering. Still no reaction, though. I went down to my knees and gave her a hand to help her get up. "Are you alright? Can you stand up?" I asked her again, getting my old cold expression on my face back, yet I was smiling a little.  
>"I think so…" she then said facing the ground and trying to stand up, though she fell over and landed on the ground again. "I think… my legs won't do what they are supposed to do right now."<p>

I went to the Behemoth and pulled my sword out of his head; afterwards I went to his neck and pulled a small piece of the fusion sword out of it. Then I looked a few seconds at it before I turned around and was facing Lightning again who was still lying there. I didn't give her an answer yet. You can tell, I was somewhat mad at her for her selfish actions.

"That was too close." I announced noticing she simply nodded, not saying anything at all. I went closer to her and grabbed her to lift her up.

"What… what do you think you are doing?!" she suddenly announced facing me with widened eyes.

"Well… you aren't able to walk right now, right? We are going to take a rest now anyways, just like I mentioned earlier… plus, I won't carry you around for the next hours. Taking a rest is the best thing to do now. " I answered not looking at her but walking straight for a dead tree which I located earlier the time I was sitting and watching her fail.

"Alright…" she said slowly and with a low voice, facing away now. "I am... aware we should do things together, it is too risky if someone is messing things up." she said while being in my arms, still facing away.

"Yeah" I simply announced, reaching the tree any laying her down. "It's getting dark and it's getting cold, you can tell that this was a frozen area once. We shouldn't have started our journey in the afternoon." I said, not getting an answer but and simple quiet "Hmph". "Wait here, I will cut this tree into kindling so that we can make a bonfire." I announced and moved a few feet away to cut the tree.

"How did you do it?" she suddenly asked.

"What do you mean?"

"How were you able to reach him in time? I mean, he was literally only 5 feet away from me. I saw myself dying already."

"I don't know… I threw one part of the fusion sword at him, hoping I would hit his head but I failed on that as it hit his neck…" I said while walking back to her with the kindling.

"And how come you were standing on his head?"

"Well… I somehow ended up standing at the position that part has hit him and was able to push my sword through his head afterwards." I said shrugging while carrying the kindling, putting it to the ground afterwards.

"I see… thank you" she then said facing me with a kind smile. I noticed that my cheeks were heating up so I instantly turned away from her and slashed stones together to get some sparks to light up the fire. As soon as it worked I looked back at her with a small smile.

"There is no way I am letting you get killed, Light"  
>"Eh?" she responded to my late and sudden answer kind of surprised while staring at me.<br>"Well, this is our journey, right? I don't want to do this alone, let's face it." I clarified facing the fire.

"Oh… yeah" she responded with a low voice and turned away again.

I sat down next to the fire, looked down and kept thinking about the whole situation I was in. I didn't know why we survived, I didn't know anything about our purpose, I didn't know anything about this world, in fact, I didn't know anything at all. I needed Lightning to get through with this and to be able to go back to my world, to Gaia. "This is a mess... moreover; Lightning seems to be way too confident in her skills, just the opposite of me. I have to teach her to be more careful. Today could have ended worse, I somehow got lucky right there…" I kept thinking while lifting my head again looking at the fire. Through the fire I was able to see something or someone "What… what is that?" I asked myself. I stood up immediately and saw a man in purple disappearing around the corner. "What the…?"

"Light, did you see that?" I suddenly asked and turned my head towards her, noticing she was fallen asleep already and was shivering slightly. A small smile appeared on my face watching her sleep that innocently. "I still wonder why she attacked me earlier… and why didn't she move earlier as well. Only because of her actions we ended up being in this mess… she should have moved, but instead she wanted to tell me something…" I said to myself shrugging. I walked next to her and looked down to her shivering body. "It indeed is cold… uhm… maybe… we should heat up ourselves." I continued blushing slightly, but there was no use. I did lay down behind her and wrapped my arm around her so that we could save up some more warmth from the fire. I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep.

"Well… maybe it isn't that bad over here as I expected it to be…" were my last thoughts with a small smile before I fell asleep. I forgot about the mysterious man I've seen before.


	17. Confrontation

**C.17: Confrontation**

(forgive me for my grammar mistakes, could be even worse than usually as I wrote this at late night, lol :D. Longer chapter this time around!)

* * *

><p>After a somewhat short night at the bonfire in the middle of the Bresha ruins I woke up again, still being in the same position I feel asleep earlier. I took my hand away from her, stood up carefully and looked down on her for a few seconds. I noticed that the fire has lapsed during the night. "I hope you are doing fine again by now, though… this night for sure wasn't as comfortable as you might be used to. We need to go on today and find our next destination." I thought while smiling a little, "she looks cute… sleeping innocently". I turned around and searched for a vantage point to get a view over the region and noticed a very small mountain, you can call it rock if you want, right in front of me. I jumped onto it and saw flora at the horizon. "So… that must be the Archylte Steppe, ha?". I kept standing there for a few more moments, went through my hair with my right hand and rested the palm of it at my neck sighing once.<p>

"What are you sighing about?" I heard her talking from behind me with a kind voice, different than I was used to. I turned around and smiled a little while scratching the back of my head now.

"Oh… good morning Lightning, really nothing important about, don't worry..." I replied.

"Tell me?" she inquired again, tilting her head a little and returning the smile of mine.

"Well… I didn't expect the first day of our little journey to turn out that messy, you know?" I shrugged and jumped down from the rock.

"Oh yeah… me neither." She answered, looking to the ground… I knew that she felt bad about yesterday.

"Don't worry about it anymore, we made it. Can you stand up?" I said cheerfully, reaching out my hand for her so that she can actually see it even though she was staring at the ground. She didn't take it and stood up on her own.

"Yeah, I think I am fine again… sor-"  
>"It's alright." I confirmed again, taking away my hand to turn around again towards the rock. "We should be going, from top of the rock I saw flora, there must be the Archylte Steppe you've been talking about earlier, right?" I asked her, not looking at her. I felt that she was nodding behind me; therefore I gave out a small smile again. "Come on, let's go!" I demanded cheerful.<p>

On the way to the Archylte Steppe we were talking about some random stuff which came up in our mind, just like the question of "how did you sleep tonight?". I didn't feel like telling her that I was so close to her this night. I didn't do it for me; I did it for her as I saw that she was shivering, but still… I was a little embarrassed and tried to avoid any more questions containing this topic. After some time we made our first steps onto the Steppe, well… at least it were my first steps onto it.

"So this is the Archylte Steppe, ha?" I asked surprised of the looking.

"Yup" she answered cheerfully, "it used to be a nice though dangerous place"

"It's definitely nice looking…" I stated smiling a little.

"Come on, we need to find the camp which should be somewhere around" she then said clapping on my back while walking past me.

It indeed looked gorgeous even though I didn't want to express my thoughts about this place towards her… it just wouldn't feel right to do so. A simple "nice looking" must have been enough. This place was the total opposite from the ruins; it was vital, hot and made me feel new motivation for the next steps of our journey even though it looked like it could start raining soon. You could see lakes with dragonflies flying above them, frogs jumping around, ducks and swans taking their baths in the lakes and all other kind of animals. On the land you would be able to see common animals, though; I noticed hell lot of chocobo's running around.

"Cho... Chocobo's?" I asked, surprised again.

"Yeah… the fastest way to-" I interrupted her

"… from point A to point B" I finished her sentence, making her turn around at me and wonder a little.

"Where do you know them from anyways?" she asked tilting her head, still wondering.

"Well… they do exist on my planet as well…" I answered, still a little surprised.

"That's fantastic, we do have a few things in common after all" she finished and turned around to continue walking.

"Yeah… a few things… I guess there are actually more things than we are expecting right now…" I thought to myself while shrugging, not following her yet.

"Cloud? I see the camp, come over here, we are almost there!" she suddenly announced waving her hands to make me come over.

"Alright, I am coming!" I answered before sprinting next to her. "Wow… down there?" No wonder we didn't see it… it is in a valley… All we need to do now is…" I smirked a little, noticing she was looking at me kind of worried and wondering.

"What is your plan…?" I continued smirking. "Cloud…?"

I grabbed her hand and started jumping down to the valley, which seemed to be like 30 meters under us. She widened her eyes in surprise, but wasn't able to either yell or scream at me as she was… totally surprised by my actions. In mid-air I grabbed her completely, so that I would carry her in my arms the time we smash the ground in a few seconds. Once we hit the ground she was just simply staring at me with widened eyes while I smirked at her. Soon I noticed that the expression on her face changed, as if she didn't enjoy the sudden action from me…

"You indeed are stupid!" she announced punching onto my chest, making me let her fall to the ground.

"Hey… what was that about?" I asked bowing down in pain.

"Don't scare me with such sudden actions, idiot!" she demanded while getting up and making me face her back.

"Whatever… I got it." I said frustrated, I really did think that she would somewhat enjoy it. I straightened up and stood still for a few moments.

"…. It was fun anyways" she stated while shrugging a little "… now let's go"

I smiled a little to her confession about the action we just took. I was just surprising her as it happened all out of sudden… "Oh well…" I thought and followed her into the camp to notice some people which must be the villagers of this small little 'town'. She went straight for one of them for some reason I didn't know yet.

"Hey… did you guys see an Fal'Cie somewhere around here?" she asked the villagers while I stood behind her, not interfering as I hadn't much clue of what to talk here about anyways.

"An Fal'Cie?" the villager asked shocked. "A-Are they back… are they?" he asked afraid, about to run away.

"No, of course they aren't… I was just simply making sure that everyone is safe" she answered smiling towards him. I knew she was lying, and she knew it as well. "The reason I am here is to ask you for a Chocobo… do you have one left? We need to head to Academia City for some business, and I know that we need a Chocobo to get over the mountain pass nearby."

"I see…" he answered somewhat relieved. "Yeah… we do have one here in the camp, I can lend it to you if you need it that badly." He continued.

"That would be great!" she answered very cheerful with a kind smile on her face, I didn't know she can have such an expression… I wasn't used to it. She must have tried to convince him no matter what.

"Take this cabbage… so you can actually becalm it and control it…" he said, grabbing some of it out of his belly bag. "They are in front of the camp, you might have seen them the time you came in" he finished smiling a little before turning away and walking off to care for his businesses.

Lightning suddenly turned around and sighed before giving me one of those 'annoyed but yet somewhat relieved looks'…

"Well… actually we haven't seen them as we took a different route into the camp…" she finally stated, smiling a little me.

"Uhm… yeah… sorry for that…" I answered a little embarrassed.

"We should head for it, let's go!" she said moving ahead.

After some minutes of walking we left the medium sized camp and noticed the promised Chocobo on to the right of us. We made our way to it to stare at it for a few seconds.

"I can't believe they really do exist over here as well…" I said in a low voice, still surprised of this.

"Be happy you are used to at least one thing on this Planet, Cloud" she answered and suddenly rested her hand on my shoulder while standing next to me.

"Now… who do we have here?" suddenly a voice from behind of us appeared, not sounding all too kind and rather annoyed and evil than anything else. It was the voice of a man, a man which had a cold sound in his voice. "Etro's chosen hero and his trashy companion." I noticed that Lightning was, just like me, surprised by the sudden appearance of that man behind us. We slowly turned around at the same time as my eyes widened the time I recognized him.

"You…" I said, being calm. Lightning was looking at me confused.

"Do you… know him?" she asked looking at me, while he was standing in front of us smirking boldly with one of his hands on his hips while the other one held a big sword.

"No… I thought I saw him here and there a few times… and it turns out that it is him; he was stalking us the whole time already. He must be the one who is pulling the strings of all what happened lately." I answered her while still staring at him.

"So what…? Even if I am the one behind this, you don't mind having a little bit of… fun?" he said, his smirk turned even bolder.

"Who are you?" Lightning asked him being furious.

"I doesn't matter who I am or who I will become… but for those who will die soon… they call me Caius, while I call them trash. So… you understood, trash?" he answered, laughing evilly now.

Lightning was about to attack him but I hold her back as I was grabbing her arm and shaking my hand.

"Not yet Lightning!" I tried to calm her down, but she wouldn't listen.

"I can do whatever I want, this is my planet Cloud, let me go!" she shouted out, getting her arm out of my grip running towards him to smack him down but failing epically. He simply dodged her with an insane speed and continued laughing at us.

"You see… you guys are worth nothing. Pathetic Etro thinks that you guys can do something against Me." he announced. I was checking the situation while Lightning went more furious. I didn't know what I should do.

"Lightning, please! We need to think over this, he doesn't seem to be one of those guys which can be knocked down that easily!"

"Shut up Cloud! I am going to take care of him right now!" she shouted out while I noticed a portal appearing behind her. "ODIN!" She was summoning some kind of bestia. And it seems that I was right, a knight sitting on a horse appeared only a few seconds afterwards. I noticed that Caius wasn't impressed at all.

"My, my… you really think that this can stop me?!" he said, smirking yet again while the crystal eye on his sword started to glow. "He is mine now." Within seconds the summoning has been soaked into the sword of his. Lightning stood there shocked.

"What is going on?" I thought to myself while Lightning was screaming out for Odin.

"Listen you dumbasses… stop annoying me and better get back where you came from, no one needs the both of you as you will fail on your objectives anyways. Or do you think you guys can fulfill them?" he asked while chuckling.

"Of course we do!" Lightning answered, raging up.  
>"Then tell me about the destiny of yours, do you know what you have to do?" he asked with a cold voice.<p>

"We will find out soon, and now stop screwing us around!" Lighting answered yet again, I was simply staying back, checking out the situation.

"Well… you know, you guys are nothing more than toys I can do with whatever I want…" he finally stated, both of us widening our eyes in surprise to the words which just left his mouth.

"What do you mean?" I asked suddenly.

"You see… I am the one who brought back the Fal'Cie, I wanted you two guys to turn out as Fal'Cie's as well, sadly I failed on that… but the way it is now seems to be more fun anyways." I noticed that Lighthing wanted to attack him, but she knew that it wouldn't be any kind of use… he would dodge her attack again.

"Fun?" Lighting asked with a low broken voice. "What do you mean with 'fun'?" she asked glaring at him.

"Hero… your destiny is to kill me, and trashy companion, your destiny… is the one I mention to be fun" he continued, laughing again.  
>"Stop fooling me!" Lightning demanded, clenching her fists. "Tell me!" she shouted out.<p>

"Well, your destiny is to kill your hero" he finally mentioned, smirking evilly at the both of us. I noticed that the fists of Lightning where opening and her eyes went wide, just like mine.

"I would never fight against her!" I stated, looking at Lightning which gave me a small smile. Caius though, he started laughing again.

"Oh… is that so? I am done here for now…" He said jumping up to the place we have jumped down earlier. "Cloud, do me a favor as I don't feel like toying with the both of you right now." he mentioned confident.

"Eh?" I was wondering what he was talking about, me and Lighting where looking up to his position, waiting for his next move.

"Have fun, the both of you… if you kill her, you will live, if you don't you will die within the next ten minutes" he stated with a crazy looking expression on his face before flipping with his fingers once. Shortly afterwards he vanished into the nothing.

"What… what was he talking about?" Lightning asked me confused from the position she had from earlier, about 30 feet away from me.

"I… I don't know… ten minutes?!" I asked her worried before sinking to the ground onto my knees within a second.

"Cloud!" I heard her screaming for me while everything went blurry.

"What is going on with me?!" I asked myself.

"Cloud! Your branding! It's glowing heavily!" she screamed out again running towards me. I looked towards the ground and held my head tightly, everything was spinning. I couldn't concentrate, I wasn't able to think properly, he must have done something to me, I just didn't know what.

"Lightning… help me!" I screamed out before everything went black in front of my eyes.

* * *

><p>~.Lightning POV<p>

"What is going on here? What is happening to him? What did Caius to him?" I asked myself while still running towards him "Please be fine, Cloud! I need you!" I finished my thoughts right before he took away his hands from his head and rested them on the ground breathing heavily while looking down.

"Cloud… are you alright?" I asked him worried, reaching out my hand for him the time I stood in front of him; trying to smile a little.

"…" he didn't answer me, at all.

"Cloud?" I asked again, not moving, though I knew something was wrong.

"…" the same reaction as before. I pulled my hand slowly back the time he slowly lifted his head. The aura around him started to appear at the same time, yet… it wasn't turned blue the way I was used to it, this time it turned out to be as black as the night. The time I saw his eyes I was sure, something was wrong. They were flipping colors… red, blue, red, blue, red, blue… and ended up being red. The expression on his face turned evil, he wasn't himself anymore, something must have taken control over him.

"Cloud…?" I asked him once again, hoping it wasn't as bad as I expected and he was only playing with me. An evil smirk appeared on his face.

"You… You're dead" he said, leaving me speechless and shocked.


	18. My friend as an enemy

**C. 18: My friend as an Enemy**

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><p>~. Lightning POV<p>

Blood was rushing through my body the time he determined my death. He changed; his gaze was full with hate, anger… evilness. His eyes were bleeding and his lips slowly formed into an arrogant evil grin. He couldn't be faking, I haven't seen him anything like that before, never.

"Cloud…?" I whispered fragile in disbelief while lifting my right hand towards him, trying to reach him, wanting him to be himself again. He didn't give me an answer and kept glaring at me while slowly starting to brush over his upper lips with his tongue.

"Please! Put yourself together, Cloud!" I pulled my right hand back and clenched it into a fist.

"Let's get this over with." He then announced coldly while pulling the sword from his back and giving me a smirk. I sighed once and tried to concentrate on what is going to happen. The person I had to fight wasn't Cloud after all… he was under control. It seemed like I wasn't the only one who was affected with this situation in a sad way, even the weather started to shed some tears. It was raining.

"You know Cloud…" I stated while pulling the gunblade "… you do look like an asshole right now." I was about to go into a fighting stance the time I noticed that he has vanished and wasn't standing in front of me anymore. I was about to turn around to check the area behind me, but couldn't manage to do so as I was held in place by someone. An arm was wrapped around my waist from behind; I felt the evil aura of him. '… how did he manage to get behind me so quickly just now?! Did Caius increase his strength?' I asked myself while being shocked of the sudden approach.

"Is that so…?" I heard him whispering into my ear with his head close to mine. "You're looking cute as always Lightning, very tasty to be accurate" he then finished off while I felt my ear getting wet as he started to lick over it from the bottom to the top. I was about to blush due to the sudden sensation, though I had to keep in mind that he wasn't acting the way he normally does. 'It's not him… it's not him… it's not him…' I repeated to myself so that it would be easier to me to fight if I really needed to.

"Let go off me!" I announced with anger while being about to smash my elbow into his stomach. Before I could do so he has disappeared yet again. I turned my head slowly around to check if he was still standing behind me.

"You're too slow, Lightning. You won't manage to fight me. After all you were telling me… you are…" I turned my head back towards him, he was standing on the same position he was on before he appeared behind me.  
>"I am what..?" I asked him mad.<p>

"You are nothing but a week and fragile woman, after all." he finished with a bold smirk. "This…" he announced while starting to walk slowly towards me with his sword being pulled behind him as the tip of it was touching the ground "… will be the final moments of your life. Would you be so kind and enjoy them? I am giving you the pleasure to spend them with me." His pace got faster, he was about to reach me. The expression on his face was as cold as never before. The grip on his sword was tightening, I knew he was about to slash me. He surely wasn't faking; his intention was to kill his enemy: me. He then disappeared to appear right in front of me again shortly afterwards, his face being really close to mine.

"Boo!" His expression didn't change. I crouched down as I felt that he wanted to slash me horizontally. The time I was on my knees I felt the wind of the slash above me. 'An opening' I thought as he needed to recover for a short time from his attack. Thus in this moment I forced myself up with all my strength to give him an uppercut with the hilt of my gunblade. My attack hit him with full force making him fly backwards a few meters. 'I can do this, I can definitely do this.' I said to myself while tightening the grip on my sword. He was about to hit the ground with his back, then I noticed that he turned himself around in midair and was jumping towards me with an insane amount of speed. He seemed to be fine; my attack didn't do anything to him. The speed of him made me stand on place; I was shocked of how fast he was moving.

His right fist connected with my face and sent me flying backwards this time, though I was flying a whole lot further than him. While in midair I tried to pull my head up so that I would face him and his next actions. His hit was hard, I couldn't recover myself that quickly. He must have put a lot of his strength into this hit, at least that's what I thought. He was standing calmly on my previous place.

"Let me show you something, this is only for you my dear…" he then announced while disconnecting the parts of his fusion sword. He threw all of them but one randomly into the air, the last one was flying towards me in the end. 'What is he doing…?" I asked myself while still flying before I felt that the sword part was right below me.

The next thing I felt was a strong pain in my back, moreover I was flying upwards now into the direction of another piece of his sword. I cried out in pain and spitted some blood while flying upwards 'What did he do just now?' I asked myself. A few seconds afterwards I noticed that he appeared at the piece of sword I was flying towards to. 'Teleporting? Is he teleporting?' My eyes widened while I took a look into his face, he was glaring at me and clenching his fists for the next hit. The time I approached him he gave me a beat into my waist and send me towards the next piece. It felt like he was playing with me, having fun killing me. He wanted me to suffocate. After a few blows I was flying towards the ground again and struck it with a lot of momentum.

'This… was too… too much…' I thought while lying on the ground for a few moments. I noticed that he was standing a few meters away from me, not moving just yet.

"I might be fragile… and weak… compared to you, Cloud…" I started while coughing blood and trying to get myself up very slowly "… but I am someone who is keeping promises. I faced him.

"I don't care." He answered coldly while slowly walking towards me.

"So you don't care… about what you… promised me, …do you?" I asked him with a small smile.

"I don't care." I noticed that his voice changed. He was thinking, though the expression on his face was still cold.

"You promised… you promised me… to help me, Cloud. Wake up… you jerk!" I said while finally standing again, spitting some blood on the ground and holding my waist as I felt strong pain from there.

"Shut your mouth! I didn't promise anything to just anyone!" he screamed while now rushing towards me with his sword.

'Something is wrong here' I thought. 'He must still be himself somewhere deep inside, otherwise he wouldn't get so mad over my talk… I don't know what I should do here… I need help… fighting is nonsense as he is too powerful… moreover…' I had a quick look on my waist and brushed the blood away from my face with my left hand '… I am too hurt to keep on fighting against him.' I smiled slightly and released the gunblade from my hand. Cloud was slowing down.

"What are you doing? Keep on fighting, I am really enjoying this!" he said while wondering about my actions.

"I give up." I announced. "This is nonsense, I stand no chance against you."  
>"You… what?" he asked while now walking towards me. The look on his eyes made me want to kill myself as they expressed death.<p>

'I've got to belief in him… I hope he won't do anything, if he does… it is my end.'… I thought while being afraid of what is going to happen. He was now standing in front of me, preparing himself for his slash. I looked down towards the ground.

"Any last words, Lighting?" he said while brushing over his upper lip with his tongue once again.

"You… you promised me to help me, Cloud…you said… that no matter what, you would be by my side… and yet, all you want to do is to kill me…" I stopped for a second as I needed to cough again "…you were the 'hero' in this story, the person who should bring back the happiness… now you turned evil. And ..Cloud, do you know what's… what's the worst part about it?"

He didn't say anything, yet he let me finish my words.

I lifted my head slowly to face him again, he was staring at me. Wet drops were running down my cheeks, was it my tears? Was it the rain which got heavier? I couldn't say…

"The worst thing is that I need you here right now!" I screamed out with the rest of my power before falling back down the ground. I smacked my right fist onto the ground with anger. "And now... finish me, Cloud" A few moments passed but nothing happened at all. "…Cloud?" I repeated myself while looking up slowly. His eyes widened. He let go of his sword and fell onto his knees. Both of his hands were holding his head.

"Cloud… are you fighting against yourself?" I asked him slowly.

"Shut… Shut… " he tried to answer, he was still angry. A few seconds later his hands reached for my gunblade.

"What are you doing?" I asked him wondering of what's going on right now while still being down on my knees. I stared at him, not knowing what to think. In the same moment he faced me and gave me a weak smile, though he didn't say anything. His eyes were still bleeding, the expression was the same as before… but something has changed.

He took the blade and stabbed it instantly through his stomach, after a few seconds he sank down and was lying on his back right in front of me with the blade in his upper part of the body. I crawled towards him disbelieving what I just saw.

"What… what did you do?" I sat next to him, staring at his face, his eyes were closed.

"I… I am sorry. After all…" he opened his red eyes and looked at me. My hand reached towards his face, I felt the need to slap him for what he has done to me… but instead I rested the palm of my hand on his cheek and brushed over it with my thumb. He gave, once more, a weak smile before he closed his eyes. The brand on his neck stopped glowing but was still active. He didn't finish off his sentence.

"…Cloud?" I whispered while staring at him with widened eyes.

"Please Cloud, …hang in there!" I started while coughing once again. "Be fine… I need you!" Drops were still running down my cheeks, but this time it were my own for sure.


	19. Hiding the truth

**C.19: Hiding the truth**

So... here we go. A short chapter, only showing that I am still alive (+ the next chapter is going to be a new 'arc', i needed this one here :D). I got some problems with expressing what I wanted to say here and there, I am just hoping it is understandable and you are going to enjoy this chapter nontheless... take care! :)

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><p>Unable to understand what has happened just a few moments ago I was stunned and kept staring at Cloud, who was now lying right in front of me. Why all this needed to happen? And why did he stab himself? Only to make sure that I was save? To free himself from Caius? Did he want to leave me?! Just… why.<p>

"Cloud…?" I asked him once again, my right hand still on his cheek with my thumb brushing over it a few times. I was worried.

"Are you…?" I wasn't able to finish my question, but by now I was sure. It wasn't only the rain which was making its way down my cheeks, not anymore. I tried to comprehend, tried to move, but I was in shock. Not certain of what I was doing my face slowly moved towards his… so close that we finally were separated by only a few centimeters from each other. I noticed that some of my tears were dropping onto his face.

'Please Cloud… don't leave me alone just yet.' I thought while closing my eyes and allowing my tears to full bent. 'There is still so much to do here… still so much you have to do for my world, for the sake of the future of the people which live here, … even for me!'. I could tell that our chins have met each other; I must have closed the gap between us completely. I stared at his closed eyes. I wanted to see them open, staring at me… or just looking at me… I wanted to see them so badly, but nothing happened. Slowly I moved my body backwards while my eyes kept staring at him.

"Aren't you… Aren't you supposed to be the hero of this world!? You can't just leave!" I screamed at him emotionally. Tears were dropping faster, the rain got heavier. He looked innocent… "You know…" I whispered sadly… "…the worst thing about all this…" I chuckled slightly while shaking my head disbelieving the whole situation. "…is that I may have liked you." I finished, noticing that I blushed slightly. "I wasn't able to save you in the first place, but please… forgive me, Cloud." 'Is this our goodbye?' I thought while moving towards him again, closing my eyes until a sensation went through my body. Our lips were touching each others for a very short moment until my eyes shot open… 'he… he is still alive. He's breathing!' I thought while moving backwards to stand up at once. Without thinking of what I've been doing I ran towards the village for help. 'I will save you, Cloud…' I thought while running, brushing the leftovers from my tears away with a small smile on my lips.

I explained the whole situation to the villagers which, without any problems, gave me the permission to ride a Chocobo to ease my way towards Academia. Even with both of us the Chocobo made it there in no time, giving me the chance to bring Cloud straight into the next hospital to cure his heavy wounds…

~. Cloud POV

I was breathing. That was the first thing I noticed after a long time of being… away. Not knowing of where I was or what has happened I simply remained in my position and filled my lungs with fresh air. 'What happened…?' I thought, noticing that I must be laying somewhere. 'Caius… he has been there…' I started to remember. 'He… wanted to fight?'. 'What happened to Lightning?' My eyes shot open in an instant, but didn't let me see anything as it has been dark. It must have been nighttime. 'Where am I?' I thought while looking around. A few moments later I noticed that something or someone is giving my left hand pressure somehow; therefore I turned my head slowly to the left to see why I was feeling something. Due to darkness I was only able to make sure that it has been a hand which was holding mine tightly, making me wonder who it might have been…, even though it couldn't be many people. Moreover I could tell for sure that there was also a head laying on my bed, so… someone must have watched over me and have stayed close to me for a while…'Hm…' I thought with a small smile before closing my eyes again to enjoy the rest of the night.

In the morning I woke up again, but this time I noticed that no one was near me whatsoever… 'Have I been dreaming earlier?' I asked myself while scratching the back of my head with my right hand. I stared at my left hand and was wondering if someone was really holding it for the time I've been away. I sighed and looked out of the window which was placed to the right side of me. While moving my head I noticed that I've been beaten up pretty bad and therefore my right arm was attached to some machine with the help of some tubes. 'Just what the hell happened?' I thought while I heard someone opening the door to my room. I turned my head to the left and saw Lightning, standing there… with wide open eyes, not even moving an inch and one of her hands covering her mouth disbelieving what she is seeing.

"Uhm… hey?" I started, smiling cheerful in this awkward situation, not knowing how to start the conversation properly.

"Cloud?" she answered carefully, slowly making her way towards me with wide opened eyes.

"You know…" I started cheerfully but got interrupted roughly. She rushed towards me and was hugging me tightly, her cheek touching mine. 'What…what's wrong I thought?' My eyes were widening as well. A few seconds past and she was still remaining in her position. "Lightning…?" I asked wondering, not hugging back as I wasn't sure if that's the thing which would help right here.

"Thank goodness" she finally stated, slowly releasing me from her hug and moving backwards a few steps; crossing her arms while looking out of the window which has been to my right side.

"Huh?" I was confused. Her facial expression slowly turned from worried into angry.

"What… what do you think you were doing?! Worrying me and all the others so much!" she stated clenching her fists. I noticed that a single tear was running down her cheek, therefore it couldn't be only anger inside her. 'She really must have been worried…' I thought '…Usually she reacts tough in such situations, at least as far as I know her personality by now.'

"Lightning…?" I asked carefully

"Just be quiet! All you do is worry other people!" she answered turning around and make me face her back.

"But…" 'Wow' I thought while sighing.

"You know, you're lucky that you are still alive, Cloud …" she whispered.

"Just what happened?" I asked curious. I am asking that myself the whole time already, but it seems like that I… forgot everything.

"You… you were attacked by Caius and went down in an instant. He hit you pretty bad a few times…" she answered. By the tone of her voice I could tell that she was hiding something from me.

"Is that so…? I don't understand why I can't remember… and how long have I been asleep?"

"… five and a half weeks. The doctors said that you got a chance of less than 5% to wake up again, you made me worry, Cloud. Your vitals were damaged badly… they needed to perform surgery for almost a half day to fix what got messed up inside you…"

"I…" I didn't feel like answering. I was away for a lot of time, leaving her alone worrying if I am ever going to wake up again.

"I thought…" I noticed that her voice was shaking. "I thought you are going to die, Cloud." I only saw her from behind, but I could tell that she didn't feel comfortable in this situation. She loosened her arms. Without letting her notice I pulled the tubes out of my arm and sat down on the corner of my bed. 'Damn... I am a bit dizzy… but I need to make her feel better, somehow. Thanking her for taking care of me. I never knew that she could react in such a way, it's almost as if Tifa was talking to me.'

"I thought that I lost you." She said while lowering her head to face the ground.

"You didn't" I whispered cheerfully into her ear, standing behind her with wrapped arms around her waist and my chin resting on her left shoulder. I noticed that she stopped breathing for a short moment, I must have surprised her.

"Uhm… Cloud?" she answered nervous.

"Hm?" I got curious about what she was going to ask now.

"You… uhm, need to put on some _real_ clothes and get rid of this patient clothing…" You could say I was dressed in pretty light clothing…

"…." I remained silent, blushing a little.


End file.
